Overhead reduction and reliability enhancements for dl control signaling

ABSTRACT

Methods, user equipment (UE), and base stations for downlink control information (DCI) formats reception or transmission are provided. A method of operating a UE to transmit a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) includes receiving a configuration for a number of bits for a field that indicates a parameter in a first downlink control information (DCI) format; and receiving a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) that provides either the first DCI format scheduling the PUSCH or a second DCI format scheduling the PUSCH. The second DCI format includes a field with a predetermined number of bits that indicates the parameter. A minimum number of bits for the field in the first DCI format is smaller than the predetermined number of bits for the field in the second DCI format. The method also includes transmitting the PUSCH.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/452,238, filed on Jun. 25, 2019, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/695,557, filed on Jul. 9, 2018;and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/732,186, filed on Sep.17, 2018. The content of the above-identified patent document isincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates generally to wireless communicationsystems, more specifically, this disclosure relates to overheadreduction and reliability enhancement for DL control signaling.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to a pre-5^(th)-generation (5G) or 5Gcommunication system to be provided for supporting higher data ratesbeyond 4^(th)-generation (4G) communication system such as long-termevolution (LTE). The present disclosure relates to supporting a dynamicnumber of repetitions of a PDCCH reception by a user equipment (UE) in atime domain and to enabling the UE to determine the number ofrepetitions. The present disclosure also relates reducing a number ofnon-overlapping control channel elements (CCEs) that a UE needs toperform channel estimation in order for the UE to decode a downlinkcontrol information (DCI) format in a physical downlink control channel(PDCCH) received with a dynamic number of repetitions for a CCEaggregation level. The present disclosure additionally relates todimensioning fields of a DCI format, and therefore dimensioning a DCIformat size, according to characteristics of an associated service typeor of a channel medium for the communication. The present disclosurefurther relates to enabling a dynamically scheduled PDSCH reception by aUE without an associated DCI format. The present disclosure also relatesto enabling broadcast transmission of a transport block by a basestation (gNB) to multiple UEs and reception by the gNB of correspondinghybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) informationin a PUCCH from each UE of the multiple UEs. The present disclosureadditionally relates to scheduling PDSCH receptions by or PUSCHtransmissions from a group of UEs with a single DCI format.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure relates to a pre-5G or 5G communication system tobe provided for supporting higher data rates beyond 4G communicationsystem such as LTE. Embodiments of the present disclosure providetransmission structures and format in advanced communication systems.

In one embodiment, a method for a UE to transmit a physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH) is provided. The method comprises receiving aconfiguration for a number of bits for a field that indicates aparameter in a first DCI format, and a PDCCH that provides either thefirst DCI format scheduling the PUSCH or a second DCI format schedulingthe PUSCH. The second DCI format includes a field with a predeterminednumber of bits that indicates the parameter. A minimum number of bitsfor the field in the first DCI format is smaller than the predeterminednumber of bits for the field in the second DCI format. The method alsocomprises transmitting the PUSCH.

In another embodiment, a UE is provided. The UE comprises a receiver anda transmitter. The receiver is configured to receive a configuration fora number of bits for a field that indicates a parameter in a first DCIformat; and receive a PDCCH that provides either the first DCI formatscheduling the PUSCH or a second DCI format scheduling the PUSCH. Thesecond DCI format includes a field with a predetermined number of bitsthat indicates the parameter. A minimum number of bits for the field inthe first DCI format is smaller than the predetermined number of bitsfor the field in the second DCI format. The transmitter is configured totransmit the PUSCH.

In yet another embodiment, a base station is provided. The base stationcomprises a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is configured totransmit a configuration for a number of bits for a field that indicatesa parameter in a first DCI format; and transmit a PDCCH that provideseither the first DCI format scheduling the PUSCH or a second DCI formatscheduling the PUSCH. The second DCI format includes a field with apredetermined number of bits that indicates the parameter. A minimumnumber of bits for the field in the first DCI format is smaller than thepredetermined number of bits for the field in the second DCI format. Thereceiver is configured to receive the PUSCH.

Other technical features may be readily apparent to one skilled in theart from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.

Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may beadvantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases usedthroughout this patent document. The term “couple” and its derivativesrefer to any direct or indirect communication between two or moreelements, whether or not those elements are in physical contact with oneanother. The terms “transmit,” “receive,” and “communicate,” as well asderivatives thereof, encompass both direct and indirect communication.The terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, meaninclusion without limitation. The term “or” is inclusive, meaningand/or. The phrase “associated with,” as well as derivatives thereof,means to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, becontained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicablewith, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be boundto or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, orthe like. The term “controller” means any device, system, or partthereof that controls at least one operation. Such a controller may beimplemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software and/orfirmware. The functionality associated with any particular controllermay be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Thephrase “at least one of,” when used with a list of items, means thatdifferent combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used,and only one item in the list may be needed. For example, “at least oneof: A, B, and C” includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, Aand B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C.

Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented orsupported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed fromcomputer readable program code and embodied in a computer readablemedium. The terms “application” and “program” refer to one or morecomputer programs, software components, sets of instructions,procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or aportion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computerreadable program code. The phrase “computer readable program code”includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code,and executable code. The phrase “computer readable medium” includes anytype of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as readonly memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, acompact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or any other type ofmemory. A “non-transitory” computer readable medium excludes wired,wireless, optical, or other communication links that transporttransitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computerreadable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored andmedia where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as arewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

Definitions for other certain words and phrases are provided throughoutthis patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the art shouldunderstand that in many if not most instances, such definitions apply toprior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and itsadvantages, reference is now made to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencenumerals represent like parts:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example gNB according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example UE according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example DL slot structure for PDSCH transmissionor PDCCH transmission according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example UL slot structure for PUSCH transmissionor PUCCH transmission according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example hybrid slot structure for DL transmissionsand UL transmissions according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example transmitter structure using OFDM accordingto embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example receiver structure using OFDM according toembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example encoding process for a DCI formataccording to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example decoding process for a DCI format for usewith a UE according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example repetition for a PDCCH reception startingat any PDCCH monitoring occasion according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example location of CCEs for PDCCH candidateswith different numbers of repetitions for a PDCCH reception according toembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example use of a different sequence forscrambling a repetition of a PDCCH reception based on a repetitionnumber according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 illustrates an example location of CCEs for PDCCH candidatesbased on a number of a repetition of a PDCCH reception according toembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 15 illustrates an example use of a different multiplication factorfor a repetition of a PDCCH reception based on a repetition numberaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 16 illustrates an example determination of CCEs for a first searchspace set for first DCI format and for a second search space set forsecond DCI formats according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 17 illustrates an example determination of a PDSCH receptionwithout an associated DCI format according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 18 illustrates an example process for a UE to receive abroadcast/multicast PDSCH and transmit corresponding HARQ-ACKinformation according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 19 illustrates an example process for triggering a PDSCH receptionby a UE according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 20 illustrates an example determination of a weight factor forcombining a transport block reception with other transport blockreceptions prior to decoding according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 21 illustrates an example determination by a UE of a configurationof fields for a first DCI format according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 22 illustrates example determination by a UE of DCI formats forscheduling PDSCH receptions or PUSCH transmissions according toembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 23 illustrates an example process for supporting scheduling to a UEfor at least one service type with a size of DCI formats that isdifferent than a size of any DCI format supporting scheduling to the UEfor another service type according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 24 illustrates an example realization for configurations ofsimultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 through FIG. 24, discussed below, and the various embodimentsused to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patentdocument are by way of illustration only and should not be construed inany way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the artwill understand that the principles of the present disclosure may beimplemented in any suitably arranged system or device.

The following documents are hereby incorporated by reference into thepresent disclosure as if fully set forth herein: 3GPP TS 36.211 v15.3.0,“NR; Physical channels and modulation;” 3GPP TS 36.212 v15.3.0, “NR;Multiplexing and Channel coding;” 3GPP TS 36.213 v15.3.0, “NR; PhysicalLayer Procedures for Control;” 3GPP TS 36.214 v15.3.0, “NR; PhysicalLayer Procedures for Data;” 3GPP TS 36.321 v15.3.0, “NR; Medium AccessControl (MAC) protocol specification;” and 3GPP TS 36.331 v15.3.0, “NR;Radio Resource Control (RRC) Protocol Specification.”

FIGS. 1-3 below describe various embodiments implemented in wirelesscommunications systems and with the use of orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM) or orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA) communication techniques. The descriptions of FIGS. 1-3 are notmeant to imply physical or architectural limitations to the manner inwhich different embodiments may be implemented. Different embodiments ofthe present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably-arrangedcommunications system.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodimentsof the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network shownin FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wirelessnetwork 100 could be used without departing from the scope of thisdisclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless network includes a gNB 101, a gNB 102,and a gNB 103. The gNB 101 communicates with the gNB 102 and the gNB103. The gNB 101 also communicates with at least one network 130, suchas the Internet, a proprietary Internet Protocol (IP) network, or otherdata network.

The gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for afirst plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 ofthe gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may belocated in a small business (SB); a UE 112, which may be located in anenterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a Wi-Fi hotspot (HS);a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R); a UE 115, whichmay be located in a second residence (R); and a UE 116, which may be amobile device (M), such as a cell phone, a wireless laptop, a wirelessPDA, or the like. The gNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to thenetwork 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 ofthe gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs includes the UE 115 and the UE116. In some embodiments, one or more of the gNB s 101-103 maycommunicate with each other and with the UEs 111-116 using 5G, LTE,LTE-A, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, or other wireless communication techniques.

Depending on the network type, the term “base station” or “BS” can referto any component (or collection of components) configured to providewireless access to a network, such as transmit point (TP),transmit-receive point (TRP), an enhanced base station (eNodeB or eNB),a 5G base station (gNB), a macrocell, a femtocell, a Wi-Fi access point(AP), or other wirelessly enabled devices. Base stations may providewireless access in accordance with one or more wireless communicationprotocols, e.g., 5G 3GPP new radio interface/access (NR), long termevolution (LTE), LTE advanced (LTE-A), high speed packet access (HSPA),Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, etc. For the sake of convenience, the terms “BS”and “TRP” are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer tonetwork infrastructure components that provide wireless access to remoteterminals. Also, depending on the network type, the term “userequipment” or “UE” can refer to any component such as “mobile station,”“subscriber station,” “remote terminal,” “wireless terminal,” “receivepoint,” or “user device.” For the sake of convenience, the terms “userequipment” and “UE” are used in this patent document to refer to remotewireless equipment that wirelessly accesses a BS, whether the UE is amobile device (such as a mobile telephone or smartphone) or is normallyconsidered a stationary device (such as a desktop computer or vendingmachine).

Dotted lines show the approximate extents of the coverage areas 120 and125, which are shown as approximately circular for the purposes ofillustration and explanation only. It should be clearly understood thatthe coverage areas associated with gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, dependingupon the configuration of the gNBs and variations in the radioenvironment associated with natural and man-made obstructions.

As described in more detail below, one or more of the UEs 111-116include circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof, for receptionreliability for data and control information in an advanced wirelesscommunication system. In certain embodiments, and one or more of thegNBs 101-103 includes circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof,for efficient reception reliability for data and control information inan advanced wireless communication system.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a wireless network, variouschanges may be made to FIG. 1. For example, the wireless network couldinclude any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitablearrangement. Also, the gNB 101 could communicate directly with anynumber of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband access tothe network 130. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 could communicate directlywith the network 130 and provide UEs with direct wireless broadbandaccess to the network 130. Further, the gNBs 101, 102, and/or 103 couldprovide access to other or additional external networks, such asexternal telephone networks or other types of data networks.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example gNB 102 according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The embodiment of the gNB 102 illustrated in FIG. 2is for illustration only, and the gNBs 101 and 103 of FIG. 1 could havethe same or similar configuration. However, gNBs come in a wide varietyof configurations, and FIG. 2 does not limit the scope of thisdisclosure to any particular implementation of a gNB.

As shown in FIG. 2, the gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 205 a-205 n,multiple RF transceivers 210 a-210 n, transmit (TX) processing circuitry215, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 220. The gNB 102 alsoincludes a controller/processor 225, a memory 230, and a backhaul ornetwork interface 235.

The RF transceivers 210 a-210 n receive, from the antennas 205 a-205 n,incoming RF signals, such as signals transmitted by UEs in the network100. The RF transceivers 210 a-210 n down-convert the incoming RFsignals to generate IF or baseband signals. The IF or baseband signalsare sent to the RX processing circuitry 220, which generates processedbaseband signals by filtering, decoding, and/or digitizing the basebandor IF signals. The RX processing circuitry 220 transmits the processedbaseband signals to the controller/processor 225 for further processing.

The TX processing circuitry 215 receives analog or digital data (such asvoice data, web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from thecontroller/processor 225. The TX processing circuitry 215 encodes,multiplexes, and/or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generateprocessed baseband or IF signals. The RF transceivers 210 a-210 nreceive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signals from the TXprocessing circuitry 215 and up-converts the baseband or IF signals toRF signals that are transmitted via the antennas 205 a-205 n.

The controller/processor 225 can include one or more processors or otherprocessing devices that control the overall operation of the gNB 102.For example, the controller/processor 225 could control the reception offorward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signalsby the RF transceivers 210 a-210 n, the RX processing circuitry 220, andthe TX processing circuitry 215 in accordance with well-knownprinciples. The controller/processor 225 could support additionalfunctions as well, such as more advanced wireless communicationfunctions. For instance, the controller/processor 225 could support beamforming or directional routing operations in which outgoing signals frommultiple antennas 205 a-205 n are weighted differently to effectivelysteer the outgoing signals in a desired direction. Any of a wide varietyof other functions could be supported in the gNB 102 by thecontroller/processor 225.

The controller/processor 225 is also capable of executing programs andother processes resident in the memory 230, such as an OS. Thecontroller/processor 225 can move data into or out of the memory 230 asrequired by an executing process.

The controller/processor 225 is also coupled to the backhaul or networkinterface 235. The backhaul or network interface 235 allows the gNB 102to communicate with other devices or systems over a backhaul connectionor over a network. The interface 235 could support communications overany suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when the gNB102 is implemented as part of a cellular communication system (such asone supporting 5G, LTE, or LTE-A), the interface 235 could allow the gNB102 to communicate with other gNBs over a wired or wireless backhaulconnection. When the gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, theinterface 235 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate over a wired orwireless local area network or over a wired or wireless connection to alarger network (such as the Internet). The interface 235 includes anysuitable structure supporting communications over a wired or wirelessconnection, such as an Ethernet or RF transceiver.

The memory 230 is coupled to the controller/processor 225. Part of thememory 230 could include a RAM, and another part of the memory 230 couldinclude a Flash memory or other ROM.

Although FIG. 2 illustrates one example of gNB 102, various changes maybe made to FIG. 2. For example, the gNB 102 could include any number ofeach component shown in FIG. 2. As a particular example, an access pointcould include a number of interfaces 235, and the controller/processor225 could support routing functions to route data between differentnetwork addresses. As another particular example, while shown asincluding a single instance of TX processing circuitry 215 and a singleinstance of RX processing circuitry 220, the gNB 102 could includemultiple instances of each (such as one per RF transceiver). Also,various components in FIG. 2 could be combined, further subdivided, oromitted and additional components could be added according to particularneeds.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example UE 116 according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. The embodiment of the UE 116 illustrated in FIG. 3is for illustration only, and the UEs 111-115 of FIG. 1 could have thesame or similar configuration. However, UEs come in a wide variety ofconfigurations, and FIG. 3 does not limit the scope of this disclosureto any particular implementation of a UE.

As shown in FIG. 3, the UE 116 includes an antenna 305, a radiofrequency (RF) transceiver 310, TX processing circuitry 315, amicrophone 320, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 325. The UE 116also includes a speaker 330, a processor 340, an input/output (I/O)interface (IF) 345, a touchscreen 350, a display 355, and a memory 360.The memory 360 includes an operating system (OS) 361 and one or moreapplications 362.

The RF transceiver 310 receives, from the antenna 305, an incoming RFsignal transmitted by a gNB of the network 100. The RF transceiver 310down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an intermediatefrequency (IF) or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is sent tothe RX processing circuitry 325, which generates a processed basebandsignal by filtering, decoding, and/or digitizing the baseband or IFsignal. The RX processing circuitry 325 transmits the processed basebandsignal to the speaker 330 (such as for voice data) or to the processor340 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

The TX processing circuitry 315 receives analog or digital voice datafrom the microphone 320 or other outgoing baseband data (such as webdata, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the processor 340.The TX processing circuitry 315 encodes, multiplexes, and/or digitizesthe outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IFsignal. The RF transceiver 310 receives the outgoing processed basebandor IF signal from the TX processing circuitry 315 and up-converts thebaseband or IF signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via theantenna 305.

The processor 340 can include one or more processors or other processingdevices and execute the OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order tocontrol the overall operation of the UE 116. For example, the processor340 could control the reception of forward channel signals and thetransmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceiver 310, theRX processing circuitry 325, and the TX processing circuitry 315 inaccordance with well-known principles. In some embodiments, theprocessor 340 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

The processor 340 is also capable of executing other processes andprograms resident in the memory 360, such as processes for beammanagement. The processor 340 can move data into or out of the memory360 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, theprocessor 340 is configured to execute the applications 362 based on theOS 361 or in response to signals received from gNBs or an operator. Theprocessor 340 is also coupled to the I/O interface 345, which providesthe UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptopcomputers and handheld computers. The I/O interface 345 is thecommunication path between these accessories and the processor 340.

The processor 340 is also coupled to the touchscreen 350 and the display355. The operator of the UE 116 can use the touchscreen 350 to enterdata into the UE 116. The display 355 may be a liquid crystal display,light emitting diode display, or other display capable of rendering textand/or at least limited graphics, such as from web sites.

The memory 360 is coupled to the processor 340. Part of the memory 360could include a random access memory (RAM), and another part of thememory 360 could include a Flash memory or other read-only memory (ROM).

Although FIG. 3 illustrates one example of UE 116, various changes maybe made to FIG. 3. For example, various components in FIG. 3 could becombined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components couldbe added according to particular needs. As a particular example, theprocessor 340 could be divided into multiple processors, such as one ormore central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processingunits (GPUs). Also, while FIG. 3 illustrates the UE 116 configured as amobile telephone or smartphone, UEs could be configured to operate asother types of mobile or stationary devices.

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communicationsystems and, more specifically, to improving a PDCCH receptionreliability and reducing an associated signaling overhead. Acommunication system includes a downlink (DL) that refers totransmissions from a base station or one or more transmission points toUEs and an uplink (UL) that refers to transmissions from UEs to a basestation or to one or more reception points.

To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased sincedeployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made todevelop an improved 5G or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5Gor pre-5G communication system is also called a “beyond 4G network” or a“post LTE system.” The 5G communication system is considered to beimplemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, soas to accomplish higher data rates. To decrease propagation loss of theradio waves and increase the transmission distance, the beamforming,massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO(FD-MIMO), array antenna, an analog beam forming, large scale antennatechniques are discussed in 5G communication systems. In addition, in 5Gcommunication systems, development for system network improvement isunder way based on advanced small cells, cloud radio access networks(RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication,wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperative communication,coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellationand the like. In the 5G system, Hybrid FSK and QAM modulation (FQAM) andsliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as an advanced codingmodulation (ACM), and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonalmultiple access (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as anadvanced access technology have been developed.

A time unit for DL signaling or for UL signaling on a cell is referredto as a slot and can include one or more symbols. A symbol can alsoserve as an additional time unit. A frequency (or bandwidth (BW)) unitis referred to as a resource block (RB). One RB includes a number ofsub-carriers (SCs). For example, a slot can have duration of 0.5milliseconds or 1 millisecond, include 7 symbols or 14 symbols,respectively, and an RB can have a BW of 180 kHz or 360 kHz and include12 SCs with inter-SC spacing of 15 kHz or 30 kHz.

DL signals include data signals conveying information content, controlsignals conveying DL control information (DCI), and reference signals(RS) that are also known as pilot signals. A gNB can transmit datainformation or DCI through respective physical DL shared channels(PDSCHs) or physical DL control channels (PDCCHs). A gNB can transmitone or more of multiple types of RS including channel state informationRS (CSI-RS) and demodulation RS (DMRS). A CSI-RS is intended for UEs tomeasure channel state information (CSI) or to perform other measurementssuch as ones related to mobility support. A DMRS can be transmitted onlyin the BW of a respective PDCCH or PDSCH and a UE can use the DMRS todemodulate data or control information.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example DL slot structure 400 for PDSCHtransmission or PDCCH transmission according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. An embodiment of the DL slot structure 400 shown inFIG. 4 is for illustration only. One or more of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 4 can be implemented in specialized circuitryconfigured to perform the noted functions or one or more of thecomponents can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A slot 410 includes N_(symb) ^(DL)=7 symbols 420 where a gNB transmitsdata information, DCI, or DMRS. A DL system BW includes N_(RB) ^(DL)RBs. Each RB includes N_(sc) ^(RB) SCs. For example, N_(sc) ^(RB)=12. AUE is assigned M_(PDSCH) RBs for a total of M_(sc)^(PDSCH)=M_(PDSCH)·N_(sc) ^(RB) SCs 430 for a PDSCH transmission BW. APDCCH conveying DCI is transmitted over control channel elements (CCEs)that are substantially spread across the DL system BW used for PDCCHtransmissions. For example, a first slot symbol 440 can be used by thegNB to transmit DCI and DMRS. A second slot symbol 450 can be used bythe gNB to transmit DCI or data or DMRS. Remaining slot symbols 460 canbe used by the gNB to transmit PDSCH, DMRS associated with each PDSCH,and CSI-RS. In some slots, the gNB can also transmit synchronizationsignals and system information.

UL signals also include data signals conveying information content,control signals conveying UL control information (UCI), and RS. A UEtransmits data information or UCI through a respective physical ULshared channel (PUSCH) or a physical UL control channel (PUCCH). When aUE simultaneously transmits data information and UCI, the UE canmultiplex both in a PUSCH or transmit them separately in respectivePUSCH and PUCCH. UCI includes hybrid automatic repeat requestacknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information, indicating correct or incorrectdetection of data transport blocks (TBs) by a UE, scheduling request(SR) indicating whether a UE has data in the UE's buffer, and CSIreports enabling a gNB to select appropriate parameters to perform linkadaptation for PDSCH or PDCCH transmissions to a UE.

A CSI report from a UE can include a channel quality indicator (CQI)informing a gNB of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the UE todetect a data TB with a predetermined block error rate (BLER), such as a10% BLER, of a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) informing a gNB how toprecode signaling to a UE, and of a rank indicator (RI) indicating atransmission rank for a PDSCH. UL RS includes DMRS and sounding RS(SRS). DMRS is transmitted only in a BW of a respective PUSCH or PUCCHtransmission. A gNB can use a DMRS to demodulate information in arespective PUSCH or PUCCH. SRS is transmitted by a UE to provide a gNBwith UL CSI and, for a TDD or a flexible duplex system, to also providea PMI for DL transmissions. An UL DMRS or SRS transmission can be based,for example, on a transmission of a Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence or, ingeneral, of a CAZAC sequence.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example UL slot structure 500 for PUSCHtransmission or PUCCH transmission according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. An embodiment of the UL slot structure 500 shown inFIG. 5 is for illustration only. One or more of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 5 can be implemented in specialized circuitryconfigured to perform the noted functions or one or more of thecomponents can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A slot 510 includes N_(symb) ^(UL)=7 symbols 520 where UE transmits datainformation, UCI, or RS including one symbol where the UE transmits DMRS530. An UL system BW includes N_(RB) ^(UL) RBs. Each RB includes N_(sc)^(RB) SCs. A UE is assigned M_(PUXCH) RBs for a total of M_(sc)^(PUXCH)=M_(PUXCH) NR SCs 540 for a PUSCH transmission BW (“X”=“S”) orfor a PUCCH transmission BW (“X”=“C”). A last one or more slot symbolscan be used to multiplex PUCCH transmissions or SRS transmissions fromone or more UEs.

A hybrid slot includes symbols for DL transmissions, one or more symbolsfor a guard period (GP), and symbols for UL transmissions, similar to aspecial SF. For example, symbols for DL transmissions can convey PDCCHand PDSCH transmissions and symbols for UL transmissions can conveyPUCCH transmissions. For example, symbols for DL transmissions canconvey PDCCH transmissions and symbols for an UL transmission can conveyPUSCH and PUCCH transmissions.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example hybrid slot structure 600 for DLtransmissions and UL transmissions according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure. An embodiment of the hybrid slot structure 600 shownin FIG. 6 is for illustration only. One or more of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 6 can be implemented in specialized circuitryconfigured to perform the noted functions or one or more of thecomponents can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A slot 610 consists of a number of symbols 620 that include a symbol forDCI transmissions and DMRS in respective PDCCHs 630, four symbols fordata transmissions in respective PDSCHs 640, a GP symbol 650 to providea guard time for the UE to switch from DL reception to UL transmission,and an UL symbol for transmitting UCI on a PUCCH 660. In general, anypartitioning between DL symbols and UL symbols of a hybrid slot ispossible by sliding the location of the GP symbol from the second symbolof a slot to the second to last symbol of a slot. The GP can also beshorter than one slot symbol and the additional time duration can beused for DL transmissions or for UL transmissions with shorter symbolduration. GP symbols do not need to be explicitly included in a slotstructure and can be provided in practice from the gNB scheduler by notscheduling transmissions to UEs or transmissions from UEs in suchsymbols.

DL transmissions and UL transmissions can be based on an orthogonalfrequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform including a variantusing DFT precoding that is known as DFT-spread-OFDM.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example transmitter structure 700 using OFDMaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure. An embodiment of thetransmitter structure 700 shown in FIG. 7 is for illustration only. Oneor more of the components illustrated in FIG. 7 can be implemented inspecialized circuitry configured to perform the noted functions or oneor more of the components can be implemented by one or more processorsexecuting instructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodimentsare used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

Information bits, such as DCI bits or data bits 710, are encoded byencoder 720, rate matched to assigned time/frequency resources by ratematcher 730 and modulated by modulator 740. Subsequently, modulatedencoded symbols and DMRS or CSI-RS 750 are mapped to SCs 760 by SCmapping unit 765, an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) is performedby filter 770, a cyclic prefix (CP) is added by CP insertion unit 780,and a resulting signal is filtered by filter 790 and transmitted by anradio frequency (RF) unit 795.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example receiver structure 800 using OFDMaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure. An embodiment of thereceiver structure 800 shown in FIG. 8 is for illustration only. One ormore of the components illustrated in FIG. 8 can be implemented inspecialized circuitry configured to perform the noted functions or oneor more of the components can be implemented by one or more processorsexecuting instructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodimentsare used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A received signal 810 is filtered by filter 820, a CP removal unitremoves a CP 830, a filter 840 applies a fast Fourier transform (FFT),SCs de-mapping unit 850 de-maps SCs selected by BW selector unit 855,received symbols are demodulated by a channel estimator and ademodulator unit 860, a rate de-matcher 870 restores a rate matching,and a decoder 880 decodes the resulting bits to provide information bits890.

A UE typically monitors multiple candidate locations for respectivepotential PDCCH transmissions to decode multiple candidate DCI formatsin a slot. A DCI format includes cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits inorder for the UE to confirm a correct detection of the DCI format. A DCIformat type is identified by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI)that scrambles the CRC bits. For a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH or aPUSCH to a single UE, the RNTI can be a cell RNTI (C-RNTI) and serves asa UE identifier.

For a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH conveying system information (SI),the RNTI can be an SI-RNTI. For a DCI format scheduling a PDSCHproviding a random-access response (RAR), the RNTI can be an RA-RNTI.For a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH or a PUSCH to a single UE prior toUE establishing RRC connection with a serving gNB, the RNTI can be atemporary C-RNTI (TC-RNTI). For a DCI format providing TPC commands to agroup of UEs, the RNTI can be a TPC-PUSCH-RNTI or a TPC-PUCCH-RNTI. EachRNTI type can be configured to a UE through higher-layer signaling suchas RRC signaling. A DCI format scheduling PDSCH transmission to a UE isalso referred to as DL DCI format or DL assignment while a DCI formatscheduling PUSCH transmission from a UE is also referred to as UL DCIformat or UL grant.

A PDCCH transmission can be within a set of physical RBs (PRBs). A gNBcan configure a UE one or more sets of PRBs, also referred to as controlresource sets, for PDCCH receptions. A PDCCH transmission can be incontrol channel elements (CCEs) that are included in a control resourceset. A UE determines CCEs for a PDCCH reception based on a search spacesuch as a UE-specific search space (USS) for PDCCH candidates with DCIformat having CRC scrambled by a RNTI that is configured to the UE byUE-specific RRC signaling, and a common search space (CSS) for PDCCHcandidates with DCI formats having CRC scrambled by other RNTI. A set ofCCEs that can be used for PDCCH transmission to a UE define a PDCCHcandidate location. A property of a control resource set is transmissionconfiguration indication (TCI) state that provides quasi co-locationinformation of the DMRS antenna port for PDCCH reception.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example encoding process 900 for a DCI formataccording to embodiments of the present disclosure. An embodiment of theencoding process 900 shown in FIG. 9 is for illustration only. One ormore of the components illustrated in FIG. 9 can be implemented inspecialized circuitry configured to perform the noted functions or oneor more of the components can be implemented by one or more processorsexecuting instructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodimentsare used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A gNB separately encodes and transmits each DCI format in a respectivePDCCH. A RNTI masks a CRC of the DCI format codeword in order to enablethe UE to identify the DCI format. For example, the CRC and the RNTI caninclude, for example, 16 bits or 24 bits. The CRC of (non-coded) DCIformat bits 910 is determined using a CRC computation unit 920, and theCRC is masked using an exclusive OR (XOR) operation unit 930 between CRCbits and RNTI bits 940. The XOR operation is defined as XOR(0,0)=0,XOR(0,1)=1, XOR(1,0)=1, XOR(1,1)=0. The masked CRC bits are appended toDCI format information bits using a CRC append unit 950. An encoder 960performs channel coding (such as tail-biting convolutional coding orpolar coding), followed by rate matching to allocated resources by ratematcher 970. Interleaving and modulation units 980 apply interleavingand modulation, such as QPSK, and the output control signal 990 istransmitted.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example decoding process 1000 for a DCI formatfor use with a UE according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Anembodiment of the decoding process 1000 shown in FIG. 10 is forillustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 10can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform thenoted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented byone or more processors executing instructions to perform the notedfunctions. Other embodiments are used without departing from the scopeof the present disclosure.

A received control signal 1010 is demodulated and de-interleaved by ademodulator and a de-interleaver 1020. A rate matching applied at a gNBtransmitter is restored by rate matcher 1030, and resulting bits aredecoded by decoder 1040. After decoding, a CRC extractor 1050 extractsCRC bits and provides DCI format information bits 1060. The DCI formatinformation bits are de-masked 1070 by an XOR operation with an RNTI1080 (when applicable) and a CRC check is performed by unit 1090. Whenthe CRC check succeeds (check-sum is zero), the DCI format informationbits are considered to be valid. When the CRC check does not succeed,the DCI format information bits are considered to be invalid.

For each DL BWP configured to a UE in a serving cell, a UE can beprovided by higher layer signaling a number of control resource sets.For each control resource set, the UE is provided: a control resourceset index p; a DM-RS scrambling sequence initialization value; aprecoder granularity for a number of REGs in frequency where the UE canassume use of a same DM-RS precoder; a number of consecutive symbols; aset of resource blocks; CCE-to-REG mapping parameters; an antenna portquasi co-location, from a set of antenna port quasi co-locations,indicating quasi co-location information of the DM-RS antenna port forPDCCH reception; and an indication for a presence or absence of atransmission configuration indication (TCI) field for DCI format 1_1transmitted by a PDCCH in control resource set p.

For each DL BWP configured to a UE in a serving cell, the UE is providedby higher layers with a number of search space sets where, for eachsearch space set from the number search space sets, the UE is providedthe following: a search space set index s; an association between thesearch space set s and a control resource set p; a PDCCH monitoringperiodicity of k_(p,s) slots and a PDCCH monitoring offset of o_(p,s)slots; a PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot, indicating firstsymbol(s) of the control resource set within a slot for PDCCHmonitoring; a number of PDCCH candidates M_(p,s) ^((L)) per CCEaggregation level L; and an indication that search space set _(s) iseither a common search space set or a UE-specific search space set.

For a search space set _(s) associated with control resource set p, theCCE indexes for aggregation level L corresponding to PDCCH candidatem_(s,n) _(CI) of the search space set in slot n_(s,f) ^(μ) for a servingcell corresponding to carrier indicator field value n_(CI) (alsoreferred to as search space) are given as in Equation 1:

$\begin{matrix}{{L \cdot \left\{ {\left( {Y_{p,n_{s,f}^{\mu}} + \left\lfloor \frac{m_{s,n_{CI}} \cdot N_{{CCE},p}}{L \cdot M_{p,s,{m\;{ax}}}^{(L)}} \right\rfloor + n_{CI}} \right){mod}\;\left\lfloor \frac{N_{{CCE},p}}{L} \right\rfloor} \right\}} + i} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 1}\end{matrix}$

In Equation 1, for any common search space, Y_(p,n) _(s,f) _(μ) =0; fora UE-specific search space, Y_(p,n) _(s,f) _(μ) =(A_(p)·Y_(p,n) _(s,f)_(μ) ⁻¹) mod D, Y_(p,−1), =n_(RNTI)≠0, A₀=39827 for p mod 3=0, A₁=39829for p mod 3=1, A₂=39839 for p mod 3=2, and D=65537; i=0, . . . , L−1;N_(CCE,p) is the number of CCEs, numbered from 0 to N_(CCE,p)−1, incontrol resource set p; n_(CI) is the carrier indicator field value ifthe UE is configured with a carrier indicator field; otherwise,including for any common search space, n_(CI)=0; m_(s,n) _(CI) =0, . . ., M_(p,s,n) _(CI) ^((L))−1, where M_(p,s,n) _(CI) ^((L)) is the numberof PDCCH candidates the UE is configured to monitor for aggregationlevel L for a serving cell corresponding to na and a search space set s;for any common search space, M_(p,s,max) ^((L))=M_(p,s,0) ^((L)); for aUE-specific search space, M_(p,s,max) ^((L)) is the maximum of M_(p,s,n)_(CI) ^((L)) across all configured na values for a CCE aggregation levelL of search space set s in control resource set p; and the RNTI valueused for n_(RNTI).

One important characteristic of so-called 5G systems is an ability tosupport multiple service types requiring block error rate (BLER) targetsfor data or control information that are different by orders ofmagnitude and requiring widely different latencies for a successfuldelivery of a transport block.

Enabling reception of transport block with low BLER, such as 0.001% orless, and low latency is an exceedingly difficult task for a network andcan require substantial resources. When a transport block transmissionin a PDSCH or PUSCH is scheduled by a DCI format included in a PDCCHreception, the transport block BLER target depends on both the DCIformat BLER and the transport block BLER. The DCI format BLER is afunction of a DCI format code rate and of the received signal tointerference and noise ratio (SINR).

Achieving a BLER for a DCI format detection in the range of 0.001% orless requires a small code rate and a large SINR even for UEsexperiencing favorable channel conditions. A small code rate is achievedby reducing the DCI format size and transmitting a corresponding PDCCHover a large number of resources. This implies that a small DCI formatsize and large CCE aggregation levels are beneficial towards achieving aBLER of 0.001% or less. While this can be adequate for a largepercentage of UEs in a cell, UEs that experience low SINRs requirerepetitions of a PDCCH reception for a DCI format in order to increasean effective SINR by combining the repetitions of the PDCCH receptionprior to decoding the DCI format.

Repetitions of a PDCCH reception can be in a frequency domain acrosscontrol resource sets, effectively resulting to a larger CCE aggregationlevel where CCEs are split in different control resource sets, or intime domain where a transmission power can apply over multiple symbolsof a slot.

A number of repetitions in time for a PDCCH reception by a UE can bedynamic to reflect a dynamic available power at a gNB transmitter,depending on an existence of other simultaneous transmissions, anddynamic channel conditions that can be experienced by the UE. Then, inorder for a UE to determine a start of a PDSCH reception or a PUSCHtransmission that is scheduled by a DCI format in the PDCCH reception,or in order for the UE to perform rate matching for the PDSCH reception,the UE needs to be capable of determining a PDCCH monitoring occasionfor a first repetition of the PDCCH reception and a corresponding numberof repetitions.

From a DCI format decoding perspective, a repetition of a PDCCHreception is equivalent to receiving a PDCCH with a CCE aggregationlevel equal to a CCE aggregation level of a PDCCH reception in one PDCCHmonitoring occasion times a number of repetitions. Therefore, for thepurpose of DCI format decoding, a number of PDCCH candidates for a CCEaggregation level that are received with a number of repetitions requireseparate decoding and contribute to a total number of PDCCH candidates aUE can monitor during a time period such as a slot, M_(PDCCH)^(max,slot,μ), for a numerology (subcarrier spacing) configuration p.

In addition to M_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot,μ), a number of distinct CCEs,referred to as non-overlapping CCEs, that a UE is capable of performingchannel estimation is limited by a maximum of C_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot,μ)and this constraint is typically met before the constraint on themaximum number of decoding operations for DCI formats particularly whena UE needs to perform decoding operations for multiple DCI formatswithin a slot.

Although with sufficiently large CCE aggregation level and number ofrepetitions for a DCI format reception, assisted by a reduction in DCIformat size, a DCI format BLER of 0.001% or less can be achieved for aUE, this is an exceedingly difficult objective to simultaneously achievefor multiple UEs due to limitations in transmission power from a gNB andin time-frequency resources on a corresponding active DL bandwidth part(BWP) of a cell.

A PDSCH reception or a PUSCH transmission for a transport block thatrequires small BLER, such as 0.001% or less, needs to be robust while acorresponding transport block size is small. Moreover, in severalapplications, a transport block is common for multiple UEs but it isimportant for a gNB to know whether or not a UE correctly decoded thetransport block in order to the gNB to determine potentialretransmission of the transport block or to adapt parameters for atransmission of a next transport block.

Therefore, there is a need to support a dynamic number of repetitions ofa PDCCH reception by a UE in a time domain and enable the UE todetermine the number of repetitions.

There is another need to reduce a number of non-overlapping CCEs that aUE needs to perform channel estimation in order for the UE to decode aDCI format in a PDCCH received with a dynamic number of repetitions fora CCE aggregation level.

There is yet another need to dimension fields of a DCI format, andtherefore dimension a DCI format size, according to characteristics ofan associated service type or of a channel medium for the communication.

There is yet another need to enable a PDSCH reception by a UE without anassociated DCI format.

There is yet another need to enable broadcast transmission of atransport block to multiple UEs and reception by the gNB ofcorresponding HARQ-ACK information in a PUCCH from each UE of themultiple UEs.

Finally, there is a need to schedule PDSCH receptions by or PUSCHtransmissions from a group of UEs with a single DCI format.

In the following, one repetition for a PDCCH reception refers to asingle PDCCH reception in one PDCCH monitoring occasion while a number(larger than one) of repetitions for a PDCCH reception refers to a PDCCHreceived in a same number of PDCCH monitoring occasions. Unlessotherwise explicitly noted, repetitions of a PDCCH reception are assumedto occur in the time domain. PDCCH monitoring by a UE means that the UEperforms a decoding operation for a presumed DCI format provided by aPDCCH candidate.

PDCCH Repetitions.

A UE can be configured a set of numbers of repetitions for a PDCCHreception, such as {1, 2, 4, 8} PDCCH repetitions, and a PDCCH receptioncan be with a number of repetitions from the set of numbers ofrepetitions. Repetitions for a PDCCH reception can be restricted tooccur only for the larger CCE aggregation levels, such as the ones with4, 8, or 16 CCEs, and need not be supported for the lowest aggregationlevels, such as 1 or 2 CCEs, as a PDCCH repetition can then be supportedby using a higher CCE aggregation level.

Supporting repetitions for large CCE aggregation levels that are smallerthan the maximum one, for example supporting repetitions of a PDCCHreception with aggregation level of 8 CCEs when a maximum aggregationlevel is 16 CCEs, can be beneficial in trading off additionalrepetitions in order to avoid a PDCCH reception occupying substantiallyall CCEs in a control resource set, thereby avoiding blocking of PDCCHreceptions by one or more other UEs at a PDCCH monitoring occasion inthe control resource set.

For example, when a control resource set includes 16 CCEs and a PDCCHreception with aggregation level of 8 CCEs requires two repetitions, itcan be preferable to receive the PDCCH twice with 8 CCEs and allowremaining 8 CCEs to be used for PDCCH receptions by other UEs in a PDCCHmonitoring occasion than to have a single repetition for the PDCCHreception using all 16 CCEs of the control resource set.

A UE monitors a PDCCH candidate for each of the configured CCEaggregation levels and number of repetitions. A first repetition for aPDCCH reception can start at any PDCCH monitoring occasion or only atpredetermined PDCCH monitoring occasions. A PDCCH candidate can bedefined by a two-dimensional mapping to CCEs in (a) one PDCCH monitoringoccasion and (b) in multiple PDCCH monitoring occasions according to anumber of repetitions for the transmission of the PDCCH candidate.

For example, when repetitions of a PDCCH reception can start at anyPDCCH monitoring occasion and for a UE configured to monitor 4 PDCCHcandidates with an aggregation level of 8 CCEs and with {1, 2}repetitions at a reference PDCCH monitoring occasion (except the initialone), 2 PDCCH candidates with aggregation level of 8 CCEs can be withone repetition and 2 PDCCH candidates with aggregation level of 8 CCEscan be with two repetitions.

The CCEs for each of the two PDCCH candidates with one repetition aredetermined according to Equation 1 for a current PDCCH monitoringoccasion. The CCEs for the two PDCCH candidates with two repetitions aredetermined according to Equation 1 for (a) the current PDCCH monitoringoccasion for the second repetition and the immediately previous PDCCHmonitoring occasion for the first repetition for a first of the twocandidates and (b) the current PDCCH monitoring occasion for the firstrepetition and the immediately next PDCCH monitoring occasion for thesecond repetition for a second of the two candidates.

When repetitions of a PDCCH reception can start only at predeterminedPDCCH monitoring occasions, only either the first or the second of thetwo PDCCH candidates with two repetitions exist.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example repetition 1100 for a PDCCH receptionstarting at any PDCCH monitoring occasion according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure. An embodiment of the repetition 1100 shown inFIG. 11 is for illustration only. One or more of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 11 can be implemented in specialized circuitryconfigured to perform the noted functions or one or more of thecomponents can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

In an active DL BWP 1110 of a serving cell, a gNB provides to a UE aconfiguration for a control resource set over a number of RBs 1120 ofthe active DL BWP and over a number of symbols of a slot, such as 2symbols. The UE is configured a number of PDCCH candidates per CCEaggregation level and per number of repetitions for a PDCCH receptionfrom a set of CCE aggregation levels and a set of numbers of repetitionsthat includes one and two repetitions. In a first PDCCH monitoringoccasion 1130, the UE monitors PDCCH candidates corresponding to onerepetition of a PDCCH reception and PDCCH candidates corresponding totwo repetitions of a PDCCH reception where the first repetition occurredat a previous PDCCH monitoring occasion. The UE does not detect a DCIformat scheduling a PDSCH reception in the first PDCCH monitoringoccasion.

In a second PDCCH monitoring occasion 1140, the UE monitors PDCCHcandidates corresponding to one repetition of a PDCCH reception andPDCCH candidates corresponding to two repetitions of a PDCCH receptionwhere the first repetition occurred at the first PDCCH monitoringoccasion 1145. The UE does not detect a DCI format scheduling a PDSCHreception in the second PDCCH monitoring occasion. In a third PDCCHmonitoring occasion 1150, the UE monitors PDCCH candidates correspondingto one repetition of a PDCCH reception and PDCCH candidatescorresponding to two repetitions of a PDCCH reception where the firstrepetition occurred at the second PDCCH monitoring occasion 1155.

The UE detects a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception 1160. Althoughthe PDSCH reception is shown to start after a PDCCH reception thatincludes a DCI format scheduling the PDSCH it may also start at a sametime as a first repetition of the PDCCH reception when the UE can bufferreceived signaling over the whole active DL BWP.

A UE can expect that a number of PDCCH candidates for a first number ofrepetitions of a PDCCH reception is smaller than or equal to a number ofPDCCH candidates for a second number of repetitions of a PDCCH receptionwhen the first number of repetitions is larger than the second number ofrepetitions. The UE can also expect CCEs for the first number of PDCCHcandidates to be a subset of CCEs for the second number of PDCCHcandidates. This design can reduce a number of filtering operations forchannel estimation as a filtering operation can be shared by PDCCHcandidates with different numbers of repetitions for corresponding PDCCHreceptions.

For example, for an aggregation level of 8 CCEs, a UE can be configured2 candidates for 1 repetition of a PDCCH reception in 1 PDCCH monitoringoccasion and 1 candidate for 2 repetitions of a PDCCH reception in 2PDCCH monitoring occasions where for a PDCCH monitoring occasion fromthe 2 PDCCH monitoring occasions, the CCEs of the PDCCH candidate arethe CCEs of either the first of the 2 PDCCH candidates for 1 repetitionor of the second of the 2 PDCCH candidates for 1 repetition at the PDCCHmonitoring occasion.

With this design, having multiple possible numbers of repetitions for aPDCCH reception increases a respective number of decoding operations aUE needs to perform for a DCI format but does not increase a number offiltering operations for channel estimation. Therefore, PDCCH candidatescorresponding to more than one repetition of a PDCCH reception requireadditional decoding operations that need to be counted towards the upperbound of M_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot,μ) PDCCH candidates per slot whilecorresponding CCEs do not need to be counted toward the upper bound ofC_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot,μ) non-overlapping CCEs per slot.

Repetitions of a PDCCH reception can either be confined within a slot orcan continue across slots. In the former case, only a single repetitionof a PDCCH reception is supported at a last PDCCH monitoring occasion ina slot. In the latter case, the slot boundary does not affectrepetitions of a PDCCH reception.

The parameter Y_(p,n) _(s,f) _(μ) in Equation 1 for the search spacedetermination can then be replaced by Y_(p,n) _(P,f) _(μ) where n_(P,f)^(μ) is an index of a PDCCH monitoring occasion in a frame for resourcecontrol resource set P. It is also possible that, instead of a frame, adifferent time unit, such as 8 frames or 80 msec, is used for indexingPDCCH monitoring occasions.

Alternatively, in order to enable multiplexing in a same controlresource set of PDCCH receptions with one monitoring occasion per slotand PDCCH receptions with multiple respective monitoring occasions perslot, Y_(p,n) _(s,f) _(μ) can remain as in Equation 1. Then, CCElocations for a same PDCCH candidate at different monitoring occasionsin a slot remain same and this is beneficial for reducing channelestimation complexity as a number of non-overlapping CCEs is reduced.

A UE can assume (by default in the system operation or based on higherlayer configuration from a serving gNB) a same DM-RS precoding acrossrepetitions of a PDCCH reception, as this can enable the UE to filterrespective DM-RS receptions to obtain a channel estimate to demodulate aPDCCH using DM-RS in a current and in previous repetitions of a PDCCHreception in a same slot. When repetitions of a PDCCH reception are notconfined within a slot and can continue across slots, a UE may notassume a same precoding for a DM-RS of a PDCCH repetition in a firstslot and a DM-RS of a PDCCH repetition in a second slot.

Alternatively, even though the CCE locations for repetitions of a PDCCHreception can be different in different slots, a UE may assume that aDM-RS precoding remains same in all repetitions of the PDCCH reception.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example location of CCEs 1200 for PDCCHcandidates with different numbers of repetitions for a PDCCH receptionaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure. An embodiment of thelocation of CCEs 1200 shown in FIG. 12 is for illustration only. One ormore of the components illustrated in FIG. 12 can be implemented inspecialized circuitry configured to perform the noted functions or oneor more of the components can be implemented by one or more processorsexecuting instructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodimentsare used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

For a CCE aggregation level, a UE is configured a search space with 4PDCCH candidates for 1 repetition of a PDCCH reception, 2 PDCCHcandidates for 2 repetitions of a PDCCH reception, and 1 PDCCH candidatefor 4 repetitions of a PDCCH reception in a control resource set 1210.The CCEs for the first PDCCH candidate for 1 repetition of a PDCCHreception 1220 are same in any PDCCH monitoring occasion in a slot andare also the CCEs for a first of the two PDCCH candidates for 2repetitions of a PDCCH reception and for the PDCCH candidate for 4repetitions of a PDCCH reception.

The CCEs for the second PDCCH candidate for 1 repetition of a PDCCHreception 1230 are same in any PDCCH monitoring occasion in a slot andare also the CCEs for a second of the two PDCCH candidates for 2repetitions of a PDCCH reception. The CCEs for the third PDCCH candidate1240 and for fourth PDCCH candidate 1250 for 1 repetition of a PDCCHreception are same in any PDCCH monitoring occasion in a slot.

When a gNB transmits a PDCCH with repetitions, it is possible that theUE detects the PDCCH with a different number of repetitions. Forexample, a gNB can transmit a PDCCH with two repetitions for a CCEaggregation level and the UE detects the PDCCH with both one and tworepetitions for the CCE aggregation level. For example, a gNB cantransmit a PDCCH with one repetition for a CCE aggregation level and theUE detects the PDCCH with two repetitions for the CCE aggregation level.

In general, an ambiguity can exist between a gNB and a UE between anumber of PDCCH repetitions the gNB used to transmit the PDCCH and anumber of PDCCH repetitions the UE used to detect the PDCCH. Thisambiguity for an actual number of PDCCH repetitions can affect anambiguity for a first symbol of a PDSCH reception or a PUSCHtransmission.

In order to establish a same understanding between a gNB and a UE for anumber of PDCCH repetitions, a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH receptionor a PUSCH transmission needs to include the number of repetitions for aPDCCH reception. In addition, when repetitions of a PDCCH reception canstart at any PDCCH monitoring occasion, a UE needs to determine a PDCCHmonitoring occasion for a first repetition of the PDCCH reception.Approaches for a UE to determine a PDCCH monitoring occasion for a firstrepetition of a PDCCH reception include the following.

In a first approach, a first repetition of a PDCCH reception can berestricted to be on PDCCH monitoring occasions corresponding tomultiples of the number of repetitions. For example, a first PDCCHmonitoring occasion with index 0 can be defined over a period of slots,such as 1 slot, 10 slots, 80 slots, or any other number of slots, and afirst repetition of a PDCCH reception with 2 repetitions can be on PDCCHmonitoring occasions with index 2·i where i is an index of a PDCCHmonitoring occasion. In general, a first repetition of a PDCCH receptionwith N_(PDCCH) repetitions can be on PDCCH monitoring occasions withindex N_(PDCCH)·i where i is an index of a PDCCH monitoring occasion.

In a second approach, a first repetition of a PDCCH reception can be onany PDCCH monitoring occasion. A scrambling sequence used to scramble arepetition of the PDCCH reception can depend on the PDCCH monitoringoccasion of the first repetition. The scrambling sequence can bedifferentiated by applying a different initialization of a samescrambling sequence where the initialization depends on the PDCCHmonitoring occasion of the first repetition.

Therefore, for 2 repetitions of a PDCCH reception, the scramblingsequence is initialized at a current PDCCH monitoring occasion when thefirst repetition of the PDCCH reception is at the current PDCCHmonitoring occasion and is initialized at an immediately previous PDCCHmonitoring occasion when the first repetition of the PDCCH reception isat the previous PDCCH monitoring occasion.

A UE can decode a PDCCH candidate received with two repetitions bydescrambling the PDCCH according to each possible hypothesis for thefirst PDCCH monitoring occasion. For example, at a current PDCCHmonitoring occasion, the UE can perform a first decoding operation for aPDCCH candidate after descrambling respective CCEs from an immediatelyprevious and from the current PDCCH monitoring occasions with ascrambling sequence initialized at the previous PDCCH monitoringoccasion or after descrambling respective CCEs from the current and theimmediately next PDCCH monitoring occasions with a scrambling sequenceinitialized at the current PDCCH monitoring occasion. The UE has toconsider these two hypotheses and perform two respective decodingoperations. This can be directly generalized to any number ofrepetitions for a PDCCH reception. The scrambling sequence applied tothe DMRS can remain same in all repetitions.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example use of a different sequence 1300 forscrambling a repetition of a PDCCH reception based on a repetitionnumber according to embodiments of the present disclosure. An embodimentof the use of a different sequence 1300 shown in FIG. 13 is forillustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 13can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform thenoted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented byone or more processors executing instructions to perform the notedfunctions. Other embodiments are used without departing from the scopeof the present disclosure.

For two repetitions of a PDCCH reception 1310 and 1380, a repetition ofthe PDCCH reception in a second PDCCH monitoring occasion 1320 uses asecond scrambling sequence 1370 when the repetition is the secondrepetition. A repetition of the PDCCH reception in an immediatelyprevious, first, PDCCH monitoring occasion 1330 uses a first scramblingsequence 1360. A repetition of the PDCCH reception in a second PDCCHmonitoring occasion 1340 uses a first scrambling sequence 1360 when therepetition is the first repetition. A repetition of the PDCCH receptionin an immediately next, third, PDCCH monitoring occasion 1350 uses asecond scrambling sequence 1370.

In a second approach, different CCE locations are used depending on anumber of a repetition of a PDCCH reception. This can provideinterference randomization for repetitions of a PDCCH reception. Forexample, for a PDCCH reception with 2 repetitions, the CCEs for a PDCCHcandidate can be determined as in Equation 1 for the first repetitionand can be determined as in Equation 1 by applying an additional shiftof N_(shift) CCEs for the second repetition. The number of N_(shift)CCEs can be predetermined in a system operation, such as be equal to theCCE aggregation level of a PDCCH candidate, or a gNB can provideN_(shift) to a UE by higher layer signaling.

The UE can decode a PDCCH candidate for a PDCCH reception with tworepetitions by using CCEs determined as in Equation 1 for a previousPDCCH monitoring occasion and using CCEs determined as in Equation 1 anda shift of N_(shift) CCEs for a current PDCCH monitoring occasion, orusing CCEs determined as in Equation 1 for a current PDCCH monitoringoccasion and using CCEs determined as in Equation 1 and a shift ofN_(shift) CCEs for a next PDCCH monitoring occasion.

The UE has to consider two hypotheses and perform two respective PDCCHdecoding operations. In case of multiple PDCCH candidates at a PDCCHmonitoring occasion, it is possible to alternate a location of CCEs forfirst and second PDCCH candidates, second and third PDCCH candidates,and so on, and last and first PDCCH candidates, based on a repetitionnumber instead of applying a shift of N_(shift) in CCEs. With theapplication of a shift of N_(shift) CCEs, Equation 1 results to Equation2a or Equation 2b where the remaining terms are as defined in Equation1:

$\begin{matrix}{{L \cdot \left\{ {\left( {Y_{p,n_{s,f}^{\mu}} + \left\lfloor \frac{m_{s,n_{CI}} \cdot N_{{CCE},p}}{L \cdot M_{p,s,{m\;{ax}}}^{(L)}} \right\rfloor + n_{CI} + N_{shift}} \right){mod}\;\left\lfloor \frac{N_{{CCE},p}}{L} \right\rfloor} \right\}} + i} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 2a}\end{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{L \cdot \left\{ {\left( {Y_{p,n_{s,f}^{\mu}} + \left\lfloor \frac{m_{s,n_{CI}} \cdot N_{{CCE},p}}{L \cdot M_{p,s,{m\;{ax}}}^{(L)}} \right\rfloor + n_{CI}} \right){mod}\;\left\lfloor \frac{N_{{CCE},p}}{L} \right\rfloor} \right\}} + i + N_{shift}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 2b}\end{matrix}$

FIG. 14 illustrates an example location of CCEs 1400 for PDCCHcandidates based on a number of a repetition of a PDCCH receptionaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure. An embodiment of thelocation of CCEs 1400 shown in FIG. 14 is for illustration only. One ormore of the components illustrated in FIG. 14 can be implemented inspecialized circuitry configured to perform the noted functions or oneor more of the components can be implemented by one or more processorsexecuting instructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodimentsare used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

For a CCE aggregation level, a UE is configured a search space thatincludes a PDCCH candidate with 2 repetitions of a PDCCH reception 1410and 1480. For decoding a potential DCI format provided by the PDCCHcandidate in first and second PDCCH monitoring occasions, the UE usesfirst CCEs 1420 in the first PDCCH monitoring occasion and uses secondCCEs in the second PDCCH monitoring occasion 1430. For decoding apotential DCI format provided by the PDCCH candidate in second and thirdPDCCH monitoring occasions, the UE uses first CCEs 1440 in the secondPDCCH monitoring occasion and uses second CCEs in the third PDCCHmonitoring occasion 1450.

In a third approach, the signal of a repetition for a PDCCH reception ismultiplied with +1 or −1 depending on the repetition number. Forexample, a PDCCH corresponding to a first repetition of a PDCCHreception can be multiplied by +1, a PDCCH corresponding to a secondrepetition of a PDCCH reception can be multiplied by −1, a PDCCHcorresponding to a third repetition of a PDCCH reception can bemultiplied by +1, a PDCCH corresponding to a fourth repetition of aPDCCH reception can be multiplied by −1, and so on. A differentcombination for the multiplication coefficients corresponds to adifferent PDCCH candidate and a UE can decode a PDCCH candidate aftermultiplying each received repetition with a corresponding element of thecombination for the multiplication coefficients.

Complex multiplication can also be used where, for example (1, −j), (−1,−j), (1, j), (−1, j) can be the multiplication factors for the first,second, third, and fourth repetitions of a PDCCH reception,respectively, and the multiplication can apply for every quadruplet ofrepetitions, when more than one, of the PDCCH reception.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example use of a different multiplication factor1500 for a repetition of a PDCCH reception based on a repetition numberaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure. An embodiment of theuse of a different multiplication factor 1500 shown in FIG. 15 is forillustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 15can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform thenoted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented byone or more processors executing instructions to perform the notedfunctions. Other embodiments are used without departing from the scopeof the present disclosure.

As illustrated in FIG. 15, for two repetitions of a PDCCH reception 1510and 1580, a repetition of the PDCCH reception in a second PDCCHmonitoring occasion 1520 is multiplied by −1 (reversed sign) 1570 whenthe repetition is the second repetition. A repetition of the PDCCHreception in an immediately previous, first, PDCCH monitoring occasion1530 is multiplied by 1 (no change) 1560. A repetition of the PDCCHreception in a second PDCCH monitoring occasion 1540 is multiplied by 11560 when the repetition is the first repetition. A repetition of thePDCCH reception in an immediately next, third, PDCCH monitoring occasion1550 is multiplied by −1, 1570.

As an alternative or a complement to supporting repetitions for a PDCCHreception in the time domain, repetitions for a PDCCH reception can besupported in the frequency domain by aggregating CCEs in differentcontrol resource sets. As an alternative or a complement to supportingrepetitions for a PDCCH reception in the time domain, higher CCEaggregation levels can be supported for UEs requiring repetitions thatwould otherwise require repetitions of a PDCCH reception. For example,while a maximum size of a control resource set of 3 symbols can beassociated with support of a maximum aggregation level of 16 CCEs, acontrol resource set of 6 symbols can be introduced to support a maximumaggregation level of 32 CCEs.

A UE can skip a PDCCH monitoring occasion, for example when the UEreceives information that the symbols of the slot in the PDCCHmonitoring occasion have uplink direction. Then, a repetition of a PDCCHreception in the PDCCH monitoring occasion can be dropped and the UEreceives the PDCCH by excluding repetitions in PDCCH monitoringoccasions that cannot support PDCCH transmissions from a gNB. It is alsopossible to defer a repetition for a PDCCH reception to a next PDCCHmonitoring occasion, instead of dropping the repetition.

A UE can perform a predetermined maximum number of PDCCH decodingoperations and a predetermined maximum number of channel estimations, asdetermined by a number of non-overlapping CCEs, within a slot.Prioritization for allocation of PDCCH decoding operations or of channelestimations is first to DCI formats associated with PDCCH receptions incommon search spaces and then to DCI formats associated with PDCCHreceptions in UE-specific search spaces according to an ascending orderof a UE-specific search space index.

DCI formats associated with low latency services can require multiplePDCCH monitoring occasions within a slot. Then, a UE capability for amaximum number of PDCCH decoding operations or a maximum number ofchannel estimations within a slot can be reached at least in slots wherethe UE is expected to also perform PDCCH decoding operations for otherDCI formats. Such other DCI format can be UE-group common DCI formats inrespective common search spaces, such as DCI format 2_1, 2_2, or 2_3, orother UE-specific DCI formats in respective UE-specific search spacesand also in common search spaces when a DCI format size is same as aUE-group common DCI format size.

Then, dropping all PDCCH candidates in a search space set when a maximumnumber of PDCCH decoding operations or a maximum number of channelestimations over non-overlapping CCEs within a slot would be exceeded,would result to a UE monitoring only PDCCH candidates for DCI formatsreceived in common search spaces or not monitoring any PDCCH candidatesfor services that do not require low latency. For other DCI formats,such as ones not associated with low latency services, the UE can dropall PDCCH candidates in a search space set.

An exception can be when the DCI formats have a same size as apredetermined DCI format or a DCI format with a predetermined RNTI thathas non-zero PDCCH candidates in the search space set. PDCCH candidateallocation for the latter DCI format is prioritized over PDCCH candidateallocation for the former DCI formats at least when corresponding sizesare different.

To circumvent the above limitations, a UE configured to monitor apredetermined DCI format or a RNTI for a DCI format can adjust a numberof PDCCH decoding operations and a number of non-overlapping CCEsavailable for decoding PDCCH candidates for the DCI format aftersubtracting a number of PDCCH decoding operations and a number ofnon-overlapping CCEs for PDCCH candidates for DCI formats received incommon search spaces.

For example, for subcarrier spacing configuration μ, and denoting byM_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot,μ) a maximum number of PDCCH decoding operationsper slot, C_(PDCCH) ^(max,slot,μ) a maximum number of non-overlappingCCEs per slot,

$M_{PDCCH}^{css} = {\sum\limits_{i = 0}^{I_{css} - 1}{\sum\limits_{L}M_{{P_{css}{(i)}},{S_{css}{(i)}}}^{{(L)},{monitor}}}}$

a number of PDCCH decoding operations per slot for DCI formats inI_(css) common search spaces and C_(PDCCH) ^(CSS) a number ofnon-overlapping CCEs per slot for DCI formats in common search spaces,the UE can adjust a number of PDCCH candidates M_(p,s) ^((L,N) ^(PDCCH)⁾ for CCE aggregation L and repetition level N_(PDCCH) for the DCIformat as

$\left\lfloor {\frac{M_{PDCCH}^{{m\;{ax}},{slot},\mu} - M_{PDCCH}^{CSS}}{M_{PDCCH}^{{m\;{ax}},{slot},\mu}} \cdot M_{p,s}^{({L,N_{PDCCH}})}} \right\rfloor$

or as

${\min\left( {1,\left\lfloor {\frac{M_{PDCCH}^{{m\;{ax}},{slot},\mu} - M_{PDCCH}^{CSS}}{M_{PDCCH}^{{{ma}\; x},{slot},\mu}} \cdot M_{p,s}^{({L,N_{PDCCH}})}} \right\rfloor} \right)}.$

For example, for a UE configured with M_(p,s,n) _(CI) ^((L,1))={4, 2, 1}PDCCH candidates with one repetition and with M_(p,s,n) _(CI)^((L,2))={2, 1, 1} PDCCH candidates with two repetitions for CCEaggregation levels L={4, 8, 16}, respectively, needs to perform 11 PDCCHdecoding operations for a DCI format in a PDCCH.

Search space design for reducing non-overlapping CCEs for PDCCHreceptions with different DCI formats.

A UE is capable of performing M_(PDCCH) ^(max, slot, μ) decodingoperations for DCI formats per slot and channel estimation for C_(PDCCH)^(max, slot, μ) non-overlapping CCEs per slot for a numerology(subcarrier spacing) configuration μ. Typically, a UE reaches theconstraint on C_(PDCCH) ^(max, slot, μ) non-overlapping CCEs first andthe UE is then not capable of performing additional decoding operationsfor DCI formats.

A constraint on the number of non-overlapping CCEs that a UE can performchannel estimations over a slot can become more restrictive, leading toincreased blocking of PDCCH transmissions, when the UE needs to monitordifferent DCI formats in same or different control resource sets. For asame control resource set, an objective for a search space design foreach DCI format is to minimize a number of non-overlapping CCEs whileavoiding an increase in a blocking probability for PDCCH receptions.

A number of overlapped CCEs can be small as a number of candidates perCCE aggregation level can be materially different for different DCIformats. For example, a DCI format with target BLER in the range of0.001% can have zero candidates for the smaller CCE aggregation levelsof 1 CCE or 2 CCEs and have a few candidates for the larger CCEaggregation levels of 8 CCEs or 16 CCEs.

The opposite can apply for a DCI format with target BLER in the range of1%. Then, as the location of CCEs in the control resource set depends onthe CCE aggregation level L, an overlapping of CCEs for DCI formatshaving materially different target BLERs can occasionally be minimalleading to a UE inability to decode PDCCH candidates as a number ofcorresponding non-overlapping CCEs can exceed C_(PDCCH) ^(max, slot, μ).

To increase a number of overlapping CCEs, for example for DCI formatshaving materially different number of PDCCH candidates per CCEaggregation level, a set of CCEs of a first search space set for a firstDCI format can be a superset of the set of the CCEs of a second searchspace set for second DCI formats. As a first DCI format requiringsmaller target BLER is likely to require low latency for transmissionand have few PDCCH candidates at the larger CCE aggregation levels, ablocking probability for the PDCCH candidates needs to be minimized andcorresponding CCEs can be determined as in Equation 1.

Due to the existence of PDCCH candidates for larger CCE aggregationlevels, the number of CCEs for the first search space set of the firstDCI format with smaller target BLER is likely to be larger than thenumber of CCEs for the second search space set of the second DCI formatswith larger target BLER. Therefore, the set of CCEs corresponding to thefirst search space set can be the superset of the CCEs for the secondsearch space set.

As transmission of a PDCCH conveying the first DCI format is typicallyinfrequent, blocking of PDCCH transmissions conveying second DCI formatsfrom a PDCCH transmission conveying the first DCI format is unlikely.When a number of CCEs for the first search space set is smaller than anumber of CCEs for the second search space set, virtual PDCCH candidatesfor the highest CCE aggregation level for PDCCH transmission with thefirst DCI format can be included until a resulting number of CCEs forthe first search space set is not smaller than a number of CCEs for thesecond search space set.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example determination of CCEs 1600 for a firstsearch space set for first DCI format and for a second search space setfor second DCI formats according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. An embodiment of the determination of CCEs 1600 shown inFIG. 16 is for illustration only. One or more of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 16 can be implemented in specialized circuitryconfigured to perform the noted functions or one or more of thecomponents can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A UE is configured to monitor PDCCH receptions in a control resource setp that includes N_(CCE,p). CCEs 1610. The UE determines a first set ofCCE locations/indexes, from the N_(CCE,p) CCEs, for PDCCH candidates forfirst DCI formats 1620, for example as in Equation 1. The UE determinesa second set of CCE locations/indexes, from the first set of CCEs, forPDCCH candidates for second DCI formats 1630, for example as in Equation1.

A UE can be configured different PDCCH monitoring patterns in a slot fordifferent DCI formats. For example, the UE can be configured PDCCHmonitoring for first DCI formats in more than one occasion in a slot andbe configured PDCCH monitoring for second DCI formats in only oneoccasion in a slot that typically includes up to three symbols at thestart of the slot. When first DCI formats require low BLER, a CCEaggregation level for a corresponding PDCCH reception can be large and acorresponding control set size for such PDCCH receptions is large andoccurs in the more than one occasion in the slot while PDCCHtransmissions that include first DCI formats from a gNB can beinfrequent.

It is then disadvantageous for PDSCH receptions by respective UEs thatare scheduled by second DCI formats to exclude PRBs corresponding to acontrol resource set for PDCCH transmissions for first DCI formats.Therefore, when a PDSCH reception scheduled by a second DCI format to aUE includes a number of PRBs from a control resource set that the UE isconfigured for monitoring PDCCH receptions for first DCI formats, the UEreceives the PDSCH in the number of PRBs.

To maintain same CCE indexes/locations for any number of repetitions ofa PDCCH reception and allow repetitions to occur in different slots,Y_(p,n) _(s,f) _(μ) can be updated every N_(PDCCH) ^(max) PDCCHmonitoring occasions instead of per slot, starting from a first PDCCHmonitoring occasion in a predetermined number of slots such as 10 slotsor 80 slots. N_(PDCCH) ^(max) is a maximum number of repetitions of aPDCCH reception and can be provided to a UE by higher layer signaling.

Configurable DCI Formats.

A target BLER for a DCI format conveyed by a PDCCH directly depends on asize of the DCI format. Different UEs can experience different SINRs andtherefore require different number of resources for a PDCCH receptionconveying a same DCI format to experience a same BLER for the DCIformat. For example, a first UE experiencing a 3 dB worse SINR than asecond UE with a same receiver configuration and a same channel mediumwould require twice as many resources such as CCEs to experience a sameBLER. When the target BLER for a DCI format is materially small, such as0.001% or 0.0001%, repetitions of a PDCCH reception are likely to beneeded in order to provide an effective SINR to achieve the target BLERfor the DCI format.

Moreover, a range or existence of fields in a DCI format, such as fieldsthat associate with transmission timing or with number of repetitions,can depend on subcarrier spacing for a corresponding PDSCH reception orPUSCH transmission as the subcarrier spacing determines symbol durationand a received energy over a predetermined number of symbols in a slot.

A tradeoff between a number of resources required to achieve a targetBLER for a DCI format and a scheduling flexibility provided by the DCIformat for an associated PDSCH reception or PUSCH transmission can beestablished by adjusting a corresponding DCI format size. By increasinga number of bits of a field in the DCI format, scheduling flexibilityincreases while the number of resources also increases.

A gNB can control this tradeoff by configuring a size for each field inthe DCI format. Additionally, configuration for a size of each field inthe DCI format enables achieving a same size for different DCI formatsthereby enabling a reduction in a number of decoding operations a UEneeds to perform to detect DCI formats at a PDCCH monitoring occasion.

A DL DCI format or an UL DCI format includes a field indicatingfrequency domain resources (frequency domain resource allocation field)for a corresponding PDSCH reception or PUSCH transmission. Instead ofthe size of this field to be fixed for a corresponding size of an activeDL BWP or an active UL BWP and an RBG size for the active DL BWP or ULBWP to also be fixed so that the whole active DL BWP or UL BWP can beaddressed by the frequency domain resource allocation field, the size ofthe field can be configurable by having a configurable RBG size.

The field size, or equivalently the RBG size, is then derived from theRBG size, or equivalently the size of the field, so that the wholeactive DL BWP or the active UL BWP can be addressed. For example, for aDL BWP of 100 RBs, the field size can be 25 bits and the RBG size can be4 RBs. Instead of this partitioning of the DL BWP to RBGs being fixed,it can be configurable and a field size of 5/10/40 bits can result froman RBG size of 20/10/2 RBs, respectively.

A DL DCI format or an UL DCI format includes a field indicating timedomain resources (time domain resource allocation field) for acorresponding PDSCH reception or PUSCH transmission. A size of thisfield can also be configured to a UE by higher layers.

A DL DCI format or an UL DCI format includes a field indicating amodulation and coding scheme (MCS) for a corresponding PDSCH receptionor PUSCH transmission. Instead of a size of this field to be fixed inorder to address all entries of an MCS table defined in a systemoperation, the size can be configurable and the entries of the tablethat it addresses can also be provided by higher layers to a UE or canbe the first entries of the table that can be addressed by the MCS fieldsuch as the first 16 entries for an MCS field of 4 bits.

For example, instead of a size of an MCS field to be 5 bits in order toaddress 32 entries of a MCS table defined in a system operation, thesize can be 3 bits and the entries of the table can be provided byhigher layers. For example, a quasi-stationary UE typically experiencestime-invariant SINR and most entries of the MCS table can correspond toMCS values around that SINR and a few entries corresponding to low SINRcan be included for robustness.

A DL DCI format or an UL DCI format includes a field indicating a HARQprocess number for a transport block in a corresponding PDSCH receptionor PUSCH transmission. Different service types or system conditions canbe associated with different data rate requirements and correspondingnumber of HARQ processes. For example, for a service type that does notrequire peak data rates or for a loaded system, a smaller number of HARQprocesses can be configured to a UE relative to a service type thatrequires peak data rates or for a lightly loaded system. A size for theHARQ process number field can be accordingly adjusted.

A DL DCI format or an UL DCI format includes a field indicating aredundancy version for a transport block in a corresponding PDSCHreception or PUSCH transmission. Different service types or systemconditions or target BLERs can be associated with different transportblock sizes or need for multiple redundancy versions. For example, for asmall transport block size, chase combining can be used and a redundancyversion field in unnecessary.

For example, for a low target BLER of a transport block, a redundancyversion field in unnecessary or can have 1 bit as retransmissions of thetransport block are unlikely. For example, for a large transport blocksize with relatively large target BLER, incremental redundancy isbeneficial and as retransmissions are likely, a redundancy version fieldcan have 2 bits.

A DL DCI format or an UL DCI format includes a field indicating atransmission power control (TPC) command for a corresponding PUCCHtransmission or PUSCH transmission. A TPC command can also be providedby a UE-group specific DCI format, such as DCI format 2_2. For aquasi-stationary UE, relying on a UE-group specific DCI format toprovide TPC commands can be sufficient and a TPC command does not needto be included in the DL DCI format or UL DCI format.

Conversely, for a non-stationary UE or for a UE having sporadicreceptions/transmission and is not addressed by a UE-group specific DCIformat, a TPC command field can be included in the DL DCI format or ULDCI format with an increased number of bits to increase a correspondingrange of TPC commands.

A DL DCI format or an UL DCI format can also include other fields, suchas a number of repetitions, whether receptions/transmissions arelocalized or interleaved in bandwidth, timing for HARQ-ACK transmissionin response to a transport block reception and a corresponding PUCCHresource indication, and so on. Practically an existence or number ofbits for all fields depends on UE-specific operating aspects and acorresponding number of bits (size) can be configured by higher layers.A number of zero bits is applicable for a field when a value for thefield is provided by higher layers instead of a DCI format or when afunctionality of the field is not used for scheduling PDSCH receptionsor PUSCH transmissions.

A gNB can configure a UE, with corresponding parameters, one or morefirst search space sets for monitoring first DL DCI format(s) or UL DCIformat(s) having fields with configurable sizes and one or more secondsearch space sets for monitoring a second DL DCI format or UL DCI formathaving fields with predetermined sizes. The second DL DCI format or ULDCI format can be used for fallback operation and for scheduling a UEprior to configuring the first DL DCI format or second UL DCI format(when the UE monitors PDCCH candidates in a CSS). The second DL DCIformat or UL DCI format can have a minimal number of fields withnon-zero bits.

For example, the second DL DCI format or UL DCI format may not include,or include with reduced number of bits relative to the first DCI format,a HARQ process number field, a RV field, a HARQ-ACK timing indicatorfield (a PUCCH transmission timing to convey HARQ-ACK in response to aPDSCH reception can be provided by system information or bepredetermined in the system operation), a field providing an indicationof frequency-localized or frequency-interleaved/hoppedtransmission/reception (can always be frequency-interleaved), and so on.

A UE configured to monitor PDCCH for DCI formats with different targetBLERs, such as for a first DCI format or for a DCI format with a firstRNTI and for a second DCI format or a DCI format with a second RNTI, canalso be configured a separate DCI format, or a separate RNTI for a DCIformat, providing TPC commands, similar to DCI format 2_2.

This is because due to the different target BLERs of the first DCIformat and the second DCI format that are typically associated withdifferent target BLERs for corresponding receptions of transport blocksthat are scheduled by the DCI formats, a single DCI format providing TPCcommands would need to operate with the lower of the target BLERs andthis can often result to inefficient operation or a need for a gNB totransmit multiple PDCCHs conveying the single DCI format for differentUEs as some UEs may be configured to monitor PDCCH only for the firstDCI format and other UEs may be configured to monitor PDCCH only for thesecond DCI format.

Therefore, the disclosure considers that a UE can be configured morethan one DCI formats providing TPC commands. Remaining parameters formonitoring PDCCH receptions for each of the more than one DCI formats,such as a monitoring periodicity. PDCCH candidates per CCE aggregationlevel, and control resource set, can also be separately configured foreach of the more than one DCI formats.

PDSCH Transmission without PDCCH.

When a PDSCH reception includes a small transport block of datainformation, such as up to 32 bytes, an associated PDCCH reception canrepresent significant overhead when similar BLER targets apply for theDCI format in the PDCCH and the transport block in the PDSCH. Arequirement to schedule a PDSCH reception using by a DCI format in aPDCCH can also increase latency as a UE cannot begin processing thetransport block in the PDSCH prior to detecting the DCI format in thePDCCH.

Additionally, when a target BLER for the transport block is small, suchas 0.001% or 0.0001%, robust reception is required, and it may not relyon detailed CSI feedback from the UE but instead rely on wideband CSIfeedback and use frequency diversity. Then, a DCI format indicatingspecific RBs from an active BWP for a PDSCH reception is not requiredand interleaved PDSCH transmission over the BWP is sufficient. Timedomain resource allocation duration for a PDSCH transmission can beconfigured by higher layers or a set of possible time domain resourceallocation can be jointly considered with a set of possible frequencydomain resource allocations where the sets are either defined in asystem operation or configured by higher layers.

The modulation scheme can be fixed to QPSK or can be configured byhigher layers and does not need to be dynamically indicated by the DCIformat.

High data rates are often not an objective and also considering, due tolatency restrictions, a small number of retransmissions for a transportblock including no retransmissions, the number of HARQ processes can befixed to 1. A redundancy version can be either avoided as incrementalredundancy does not provide material gains over chase combining forsmall transport blocks or can depend on the PDSCH transmission occasion.

A PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK transmission in response to the transportblock reception can either be configured by higher layers or beimplicitly determined based on the RBG index of the corresponding PDSCHreception. For example, the RBGs in the active BWP can be indexed inascending frequency order and each RBG can have a one-to-one mapping toa PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK transmission. Timing for the PUCCHtransmission can be provided by higher layer signaling relative to atiming of the PDSCH reception, such as a last symbol of the PDSCHreception.

A transmission power control command value for the PUCCH transmissioncan be provided by a UE-group common DCI format, such as DCI format 2_2,in a PDCCH reception.

In a first approach, under the above design limitations, a PDSCHreception can be treated in a similar manner as a PDCCH reception asthere is no information that needs to be provided by a corresponding DCIformat. A search space can be defined for a PDSCH transmission where aREG can correspond to a RB group (RBG) with size that can depend on thebandwidth of the active BWP or be configured by higher layers. Similarto a UE monitoring PDCCH for DCI formats with different sizes, the UEcan monitor PDSCH for transport blocks of different sizes where thepossible sizes can be configured to the UE by higher layer signalingfrom a gNB.

Then, for an active DL BWP that includes N_(RBG) RBGs, a UE candetermine L_(RBG) RBGs for PDSCH reception candidate m_(L), from a totalof PDSCH reception candidates M_(L), as in Equation 3, where L_(RBG) andM_(L) can be predetermined in a system operation or provided to the UEfrom the gNB by higher layer signaling, i=0, . . . , L_(RBG)−1. Y_(n)_(s,f) _(μ) is a random variable that can be defined, for example, asY_(n) _(s,f) _(μ) =(A₀·Y_(n) _(s,f) _(μ) −1) mod D with Y⁻¹=n_(RNTI)≠0:

$\begin{matrix}{{L_{RBG} \cdot \left\{ {\left( {Y_{n_{s,f}^{\mu}} + \left\lfloor \frac{m_{L} \cdot N_{RBG}}{L_{RBG} \cdot M_{L}} \right\rfloor} \right){mod}\;\left\lfloor \frac{N_{RBG}}{L_{RBG}} \right\rfloor} \right\}} + i} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 3}\end{matrix}$

In a second approach, under the above design limitations, a PDSCHreception for a transport block with predetermined size can occur in atime-frequency resource from a set of predetermined time-frequencyresources in a slot with predetermined parameters such as a modulationscheme. A UE performs a decoding for the transport block using thepredetermined parameters for the reception of the transport block, ineach time-frequency resource from the set of time-frequency resources.

Instead of having only a predetermined size for a transport block, a setof predetermined sizes can be configured to a UE and the UE can decode areceived PDSCH for each transport block size from the configured set oftransport block sizes. A separate configuration for corresponding PDSCHreception parameters, such as a modulation scheme, can be provided tothe UE by higher layer signaling for each transport block size from theset of transport block sizes.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example determination of a PDSCH reception 1700without an associated DCI format according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. An embodiment of the determination of a PDSCH reception 1700shown in FIG. 17 is for illustration only. One or more of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 17 can be implemented in specialized circuitryconfigured to perform the noted functions or one or more of thecomponents can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A UE is provided a set of PDSCH reception configurations in a slot whereeach configuration in the set of configurations includes time-frequencyresources, a transport block size, a modulation scheme, PUCCH timing anda PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK transmission in response to a transportblock reception, a DM-RS configuration, and so on 1710. The UE decodescandidate transport blocks for each configuration 1720.

When the UE correctly decodes a transport block 1730, the UE includesACK information in a PUCCH that the UE transmits at a time (relative toa last symbol of a corresponding PDSCH) and a resource provided by theconfiguration associated with the transport block 1740. When the UE doesnot correctly decode a transport block, the UE does not transmit a PUCCHwith HARQ-ACK information 1750. Alternatively, the UE can be configureda PUCCH resource to transmit NACK when the UE does not correctly anytransport block in a slot or in time period configured by higher layers.

Broadcast PDSCH with HARQ-ACK Feedback Support.

A broadcast PDSCH transmission can reduce signaling overhead and latencycorresponding to transmission of multiple PDCCH and PDSCH to respectivemultiple UEs when same information needs to be provided to the multipleUEs. For example, if each UE is an industrial device and the message tobe conveyed by a PDSCH is termination of operation due to a systemfailure, a gNB can broadcast a same message to all UEs. However, unliketypical broadcast messages such as for movies where errors can betolerated and retransmission may not be meaningful, it is important forthe gNB to know if any UE from the multiple UEs incorrectly received thetransport block in the PDSCH.

The gNB can provide by higher layer signaling to each UE from themultiple UEs with a RNTI, referred to as M-RNTI, included in a DCIformat that schedules a multicast/broadcast PDSCH reception to the UE.The DCI format can have a same size with a DCI format scheduling aunicast PDSCH reception to the UE. Upon detection of the DCI formatbased on the M-RNTI, the UE can transmit HARQ-ACK in a PUCCH resourceprovided to the UE in advance by the gNB through higher layer signaling.

When for all PUCCH transmissions from the UEs the gNB detects an ACK inresponse to the multicast PDSCH receptions, the gNB does not need toreschedule the multicast PDSCH reception to the UEs or, to guard againsta possibility of a NACK-to-ACK error, the gNB can reschedule themulticast PDSCH reception, potentially with a different redundancyversion (the DCI format needs to then include an RV field).

When for a subset of PUCCH transmissions from a corresponding subset ofUEs the gNB detects corresponding NACK or a (PDCCH) DTX, the gNB caneither re-schedule the multicast PDSCH receptions to the subset of UEsor, when for example the number of UEs is small such as one, schedule aunicast PDSCH reception to each UE from the subset of UEs for aretransmission of the transport block.

For a unicast PDSCH reception, a UE may determine a PUCCH resource for acorresponding PUCCH transmission by different means, such as for examplebased on an explicit indication by the DCI format scheduling the PDSCHreception for a PUCCH resource from a set of configured PUCCH resourcesor based on an implicit indication from an index of a first CCE of acorresponding PDCCH, or based on a combination of explicit and implicitmethods for examples.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example process 1800 for a UE to receive abroadcast/multicast PDSCH and transmit corresponding HARQ-ACKinformation according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Anembodiment of the process 1800 shown in FIG. 18 is for illustrationonly. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 18 can beimplemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform the notedfunctions or one or more of the components can be implemented by one ormore processors executing instructions to perform the noted functions.Other embodiments are used without departing from the scope of thepresent disclosure.

A gNB provides a first UE with an M-RNTI for a DCI format that schedulesa PDSCH reception that includes a transport block and with a firstresource for transmitting a PUCCH that includes HARQ-ACK information forthe transport block 1810. The gNB provides a second UE with the M-RNTIfor the DCI format that schedules the PDSCH reception that includes thetransport block and with a second resource for transmitting a PUCCH thatincludes HARQ-ACK information for the transport block 1820. The first UEand the second UE detect the DCI format and receive the transport blockin the PDSCH 1830.

The first UE transmits and the gNB receives in the first PUCCH resourcea PUCCH that includes HARQ-ACK information for the transport block 1840.The second UE transmits and the gNB receives in the second PUCCHresource a PUCCH that includes HARQ-ACK information for the transportblock 1850.

When one or more from multiple broadcast/multicast PDSCH transmissionscan be scheduled to a UE at a same time (including for triggering ofPUSCH transmissions from a group of UEs), a UE can be provided withconfigurations of search space sets for corresponding DCI formats in asame manner as for unicast DCI formats and, in addition to a commonsearch space (CSS) and a UE-specific search space (USS), amulticast/groupcast search space (GSS) can be defined and PDCCHcandidates can be determined, for example, by a same search spaceequation as for USS by using the M-RNTI instead of the C-RNTI todetermine Y⁻¹.

UE-Group Scheduling.

Using broadcast PDSCH transmission to reduce signaling overhead andlatency is not applicable when multiple PUSCH transmissions fromrespective multiple UEs or when multiple PDSCH receptions with differenttransport blocks by respective multiple UEs need to be scheduled.Additionally, scheduling such PUSCH transmissions or PDSCH receptionswith low latency is not practically feasible as either a controlresource set size needs to be impractically large or a UE needs to beconfigured to monitor PDCCH in a large number of control resource setsto reduce blocking of PDCCH transmissions from a serving gNB and this isalso practically infeasible due to UE complexity and bandwidthavailability considerations.

The aforementioned limitations for scheduling broadcast PDSCHtransmissions or multiple unicast transmissions can be avoided byintroducing a new DCI format that schedules multiple PDSCH receptionsfrom or multiple PUSCH transmissions by respective multiple UEs. A UEcan be configured a new RNTI, referred to G-RNTI, for a new DCI format.To maintain a same number of decoding operations for DCI formats that aUE needs to perform, the new DCI format can have a same size as anotherDCI format a UE is expected to decode at a PDCCH monitoring occasion,such as a DCI format scheduling PDSCH reception from or PUSCHtransmission only by the UE.

In a first approach, the DCI format includes only the G-RNTI masking CRCbits and a bit-map where a UE is also provided by higher layers alocation of a bit in the bit-map. A binary value of “0” can indicate noPDSCH reception or no PUSCH transmission and a binary value of “1” canindicate PDSCH reception or PUSCH transmission for the UE. The UE isprovided by higher layers a set of parameters associated with a PDSCHreception or a PUSCH transmission, such as a frequency-domain resourceallocation, a time-domain resource allocation, an MCS, a configurationfor non-interleaved or interleaved/frequency hopped frequency resourceallocation (interleaved PDSCH reception or PUSCH transmission withfrequency hopping can be default), a carrier indicator, a PUCCH resourcefor HARQ-ACK transmission in case of a PDSCH reception, and so on.

In a first alternative, a HARQ process number can always be one. In asecond alternative, successive HARQ process numbers can be associatedwith successive PDCCH monitoring occasion numbers where, for example, afirst PDCCH monitoring occasion can be associated with a first HARQprocess, a second PDCCH monitoring occasion can be associated with asecond HARQ process, and so on. The first PDCCH monitoring occasion canbe the first one over a period of slots such as 10 slots, starting fromthe first slot. In a third alternative, a HARQ process number can beassociated with a slot number where, for example, the slot number modulothe total number of HARQ processes is the HARQ process number.

In a first alternative, a redundancy version can always be zero andchase combining can be used for potential retransmissions of a transportblock. In a second alternative, considering a small BLER for an initialreception of a transport, potential retransmissions of the transportblock can be scheduled by a UE-specific DCI format. Then, theUE-specific DCI format provides the redundancy version is addition toother parameters for a corresponding PDSCH reception or PUSCHtransmission. In a third alternative, the same parameters as for theinitial transmission of a transport block are used for a retransmissionof the transport block, that the UE can expect after reporting a NACKvalue for the previous reception of the transport block, and the UE canreceive a retransmission of the transport block without having to detectan associated DCI format. A predetermined pattern of redundancy versionvalues can be used for retransmissions, such as {0, 2, 3, 1} or {0, 2,0, 2}.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example process 1900 for triggering a PDSCHreception by a UE according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Anembodiment of the process 1900 shown in FIG. 19 is for illustrationonly. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 19 can beimplemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform the notedfunctions or one or more of the components can be implemented by one ormore processors executing instructions to perform the noted functions.Other embodiments are used without departing from the scope of thepresent disclosure.

A gNB provides by higher layers to a UE a RNTI for a DCI format thatincludes a bitmap and a location of a bit in the bitmap 1910. The UEdetects the DCI format with the RNTI 1920. The UE examines whether thebit in the location in the bitmap has a value of 1 1930. When the bitdoes not have a value of 1, the UE does not receive the PDSCH 1940. Whenthe bit has a value of 1, the UE receives the PDSCH according to aconfiguration for a set of corresponding PDSCH reception parameters thatis provided in advance to the UE by the gNB using higher layer signaling1950.

When the DCI format is used to trigger multiple PDSCH receptions or totrigger both PDSCH receptions and PUSCH transmissions, the approach canbe generalized, and the UE can be provided multiple corresponding RNTIsor multiple corresponding bit locations in the bitmap included in theDCI format with the RNTI.

In a second approach, the DCI format includes the G-RNTI masking CRCbits and a UE is also provided by higher layers a location of a numberof bits in the DCI format. The number of bits can also be provided byhigher layers or be predetermined in the system operation. A value forthe number of bits corresponds to a configuration, from a set ofconfigurations provided to the UE by higher layers, for PDSCH receptionparameters or PUSCH transmission parameters, such as one or more of theparameters provided by unicast DCI formats scheduling PDSCH reception ofPUSCH transmission only from the UE and include a CRC scrambled by aC-RNTI.

In addition to data information, a UE can also transmit controlinformation in a PUSCH. A conventional method for determining a numberof coded modulation symbols for a UCI type multiplexed in a PUSCH is byapplying an offset factor to a ratio of the total number of REsavailable for UCI/data multiplexing over the total number of informationbits of code blocks for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission and scaling bythe number of information bits and CRC bits for the UCI type.

For example, for HARQ-ACK information, Equation 4 describes adetermination for a number of coded modulation symbols Q_(ACK)′ in aPUSCH given by:

$\begin{matrix}{Q_{ACK}^{\prime} = {\min\left\{ {\left\lceil \frac{\left( {O_{ACK} + L_{ACK}} \right) \cdot \beta_{offset}^{PUSCH} \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}}{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}} - 1}K_{r}} \right\rceil,\left\lceil {\alpha \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = l_{0}}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}} \right\rceil} \right\}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 4}\end{matrix}$

In Equation 4, O_(ACK) is a number of HARQ-ACK information bits; ifO_(ACK)≥360, L_(ACK)=11; otherwise L_(ACK) is a number of CRC bits;β_(offset) ^(PUSCH)=β_(offset) ^(HARQ-ACK); C_(UL-SCH) is a number ofcode blocks for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission; K_(r) is the r-th codeblock size for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission; M_(sc) ^(UCI)(l) is thenumber of REs available for data/UCI multiplexing in symbol l, for l=0,1, 2, . . . , N_(symb,all) ^(PUSCH)−1, and N_(symb,all) ^(PUSCH) is thetotal number of PUSCH symbols; a is a parameter provided by higherlayers; and I₀ is a symbol index of a first symbol that does not carryDMRS for the PUSCH and is after the first DMRS symbol(s) in the PUSCH.

A determination of Q_(ACK)′ may in principle be inversely proportionalto a spectral efficiency of data information as defined by the ratio ofthe total number of REs actually used for data multiplexing, N_(RE,U),over

$\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}} - 1}{K_{r}.}$

However, in Equation 4, the total number of REs

$N_{{RE},A} = {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH}}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}$

is the one that is available for multiplexing data information in thePUSCH and N_(RE,A)>N_(RE,U). Therefore, by using N_(RE,A) instead ofN_(RE,U) in Equation 1, Q_(ACK)′ is overestimated. This overestimationis typically small when

$\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}} - 1}K_{r}$

is much larger than O_(ACK) as most REs are then allocated to datainformation and N_(RE, U) is similar to N_(RE,A). However, when

$\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}} - 1}{K_{r} \cdot {BLER}_{Data}}$

is comparable to O_(ACK)·BLER_(ACK), where BLER_(Data) is a target BLERfor data information in the PUSCH and BLER_(ACK) is a target BLER forHARQ-ACK information in the PUSCH, N_(RE,U) can be materially smallerthan N_(RE,A) leading to an unnecessary overestimation for Q_(ACK)′. Theproblem is circular as in order to determine N_(RE,A), the value ofQ_(ACK)′ (and the corresponding values for other UCI types, such as CSI,if multiplexed in the PUSCH) is needed while the value of N_(RE,A), isneeded to determine Q_(ACK)′.

A transmission power for a PUSCH P_(PUSCH,b,f,c)(i,j,q_(d),l) on UL BWPb of carrier f of serving cell c using parameter set configuration withindex j and PUSCH power control adjustment state with index l in PUSCHtransmission occasion i is determined as described in Equation 5 withthe parameters defined in NR specification.

$\begin{matrix}{{P_{{PUSCH},b,f,c}\left( {i,j,q_{d},l} \right)} = {\min\begin{Bmatrix}{{P_{{CMAX},f,c}(i)},} \\{{P_{{O\_ PUSCH},b,f,c}(j)} + {10\;{\log_{10}\left( {2^{\mu} \cdot {M_{{RB},b,f,c}^{PUSCH}(i)}} \right)}} + {{\alpha_{b,f,c}(j)} \cdot {{PL}_{b,f,c}\left( q_{d} \right)}} + {\Delta_{{TF},b,f,c}(i)} + {f_{b,f,c}\left( {i,l} \right)}}\end{Bmatrix}{\quad\lbrack{dBm}\rbrack}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 5}\end{matrix}$

In case of UCI-only transmission in the PUSCH, Δ_(TF,b,f,c)(i)=10log₁₀((2^(BPRE·K) ^(s) −1)·β_(offset) ^(PUSCH)) for K_(S)=1.25 whereBPRE=O_(CSI)/N_(RE), O_(CSI) is a number of CSI part 1 bits includingCRC bits, and N_(RE) is the number of resource elements determined as

${N_{RE} = {{M_{{RB},b,f,c}^{PUSCH}(i)} \cdot {\sum\limits_{j = 0}^{{N_{{symb},b,f,c}^{PUSCH}{(i)}} - 1}{N_{{sc},{data}}^{RB}\left( {i,j} \right)}}}},$

where N_(symb,b,f,c) ^(PUSCH)(i) is a number of symbols for PUSCHtransmission occasion i on UL BWP b of carrier f of serving cell c, andN_(sc,data) ^(RB)(i,j) is a number of subcarriers excluding DM-RSsubcarriers in PUSCH symbol j, 0≤j<N_(symb,b,f,c) ^(PUSCH)(i). A valueof BPRE=O_(CSI)/N_(RE) provides an accurate value for a number of bitsper RE (BPRE) when there is only CSI part 1 multiplexed in the PUSCH.However, when there are additional UCI types, such as HARQ-ACKinformation or CSI part 2, BPRE=O_(CSI)/N_(RE) is not accurate as itconsiders only CSI part 1 over the total number of REs.

In case a UE would simultaneously transmit a PUCCH and one or morePUSCHs, the UE can either multiplex UCI in a PUSCH and drop the PUCCHtransmission or simultaneously transmit the PUCCH and the one or morePUSCHs. When the UCI types require substantially different reliabilitythan the data information in the PUSCHs or when the UCI types correspondto different data information types, such as ones associated withscheduling by different DCI formats, multiplexing UCI in a PUSCH can beproblematic or complex.

Simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions can then be supported but itis typically not feasible in practice for a UE to simultaneouslytransmit multiple PUCCHs. Therefore, UCI multiplexing in a PUSCHtogether with simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions need to besupported at a same time when there are multiple UCI of a same type ordata information based on a corresponding association with multipletypes of DCI formats that are differentiated, for example, by RNTI or byDCI format size.

Therefore, there is a need to inform a UE how to combine LLRs for aninitial transmission and for one or more retransmissions of a transportblock.

There is another need to indicate to a UE a size of a DCI format withconfigurable size for at least one field prior to the configuration ofthe size for the at least one field.

There is another need to define a UE behavior when the UE is configuredto decode a number of UE-specific DCI formats that is larger than acorresponding UE capability.

There is another need to improve a determination for a number of codedmodulation symbols for a UCI type multiplexed in a PUSCH transmission.

There is another need to define a Δ_(TF,b,f,c)(i) value for determininga PUSCH transmission power when the PUSCH includes CSI part 1 andadditional UCI types and does not include UL-SCH.

Finally, there is a need to determine conditions for simultaneous PUCCHand PUSCH transmissions and for multiplexing UCI in a PUSCHtransmission.

Combining multiple receptions of a transport block prior to decoding.

In order for a UE to properly combine soft metrics, referred to aslog-likelihood ratios (LLRs), from an initial reception of a transportblock and from subsequent receptions of the transport block prior todecoding, the UE needs to know the target BLER for the transport blockin each of the receptions. This is not necessary when the target BLERdoes not materially change for each reception of the transport block, orwhen a ratio of a power of a DMRS used for demodulation of data symbolsand a power of the data symbols is invariant. However, this isnecessary, in terms of increasing performance gains fromretransmissions, when the target BLER for the initial reception of thetransport block and for any of the subsequent receptions of thetransport block can be different, or when the DMRS power does not changeby a same factor, between an initial transmission and a retransmissionof a transport block, as the data power.

In a first approach, a DCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception by the UEcan include a field indicating a target BLER for an associated transportblock or a weight factor for the corresponding LLRs. For example, a2-bit weight factor field can indicate a weight factor of {1.0, 0.75,0.5, 0.25} with respective binary values of {00, 01, 10, 11}. If a PDSCHreception can be scheduled by more than one DCI formats, such as DCIformat 1_0 and DCI format 1_1, the weight factor field may not beincluded in some of the DCI formats, such as DCI format 1_0. In suchcases, a default value for the weight factor can be 1.0 or provided byhigher layers. This can allow a serving gNB to use a relativelyarbitrary power, including a same power, for a transmission of a DMRSthat the UE used to demodulate data symbols in the PDSCH.

In a second approach, a weight factor value for the LLRs associated withdifferent receptions of a same transport block can be implicitly derivedfrom a mapping between a set of weight factor values provided by higherlayers and a value of a field in a DCI format scheduling an associatedPDSCH. For example, the field can be a redundancy version field of 2bits where a value of “00,” “01,” “10,” or “11” can map to a first,second, third, or fourth elements from the set of weight factor valuesprovided by higher layers.

FIG. 20 illustrates an example determination of a weight factor 2000 forcombining a transport block reception with other transport blockreceptions prior to decoding according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. An embodiment of the determination of a weight factor 2000shown in FIG. 20 is for illustration only. One or more of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 20 can be implemented in specialized circuitryconfigured to perform the noted functions or one or more of thecomponents can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A UE is provided by higher layers a set of four weight factor values{w0, w1, w2, w3} such as {1.0, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25} 2010. The UE detects aDCI format scheduling a PDSCH reception that conveys a transport blockand includes a field of 2 bits, such as a redundancy version (RV) field2020. The UE determines a weight factor for combining LLRs correspondingto the reception of the transport block with LLRs corresponding to otherreceptions of the transport block 2030 where, for example, the fieldbinary value of {00, 01, 10, 11} indicates a weight factor value of {w0,w1, w2, w3}, respectively. The UE scales the LLRs from the reception ofthe transport block with the weight factor and combines the scaled LLRswith scaled LLRs from previous receptions of the transport block, whenany, prior to decoding 2040.

Indication of a DCI Format Size.

In a first approach for enabling a UE to monitor DCI formats withreduced size, the UE monitors a first DCI format and a second DCIformat. The first DCI format includes fields that are eitherpredetermined in the system operation or indicated to the UE by higherlayer signaling in a system information block (SIB). The second DCIformat includes at least one field with size (number of bits, including0 bits) that is indicated to the UE by UE-dedicated higher layersignaling. The first DCI format and the second DCI format can scheduleeither PDSCH receptions to the UE or PUSCH transmissions from the UE.

When a configuration of fields in the first DCI format is provided by aSIB, the SIB indicates the fields in the DCI format from a set ofpredetermined fields. Using a SIB to indicate a configuration of fieldsin the DCI format can be useful for overhead reduction in case a gNBprefers to configure same fields for all UEs that are served by the gNB(otherwise, UE-specific signaling can be used). For example, for a setof 10 predetermined fields in the system operation, a bit-map of {1, 1,1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1} in the SIB indicates that all fields except thefifth and sixth fields are included in the first DCI format.

For example, for a set of 10 predetermined fields, 4 configurations canbe predetermined in the system operation, such as {field0, . . . ,field6}, {field0, . . . , field7}, {field0, . . . , field8}, {field0, .. . , field9}, and a field of 2 bits in the SIB can indicate one of the4 configurations. If the size of each field is predetermined in thesystem operation, the first DCI format size is determined from theconfiguration of fields. If the size of at least one field is notpredetermined in the system operation but instead can have a value froma predetermined set of values for the at least one field, theconfiguration of the at least one field can also include the size of thefield.

For example, a second bit-map for fields with size that is notpredetermined can indicate one of two possible sizes. For example, forthe at least one field with non-predetermined size, a set ofconfigurations for the size can be predetermined in the system operationand a field in the SIB can indicate one of the configurations. Forexample, for 3 fields that can have two possible sizes, a set of fourconfigurations can be {size00, size10, size20}, {size00, size10,size21}, {size01, size11, size20}, and {size01, size11, size21}, and afield of 2 bits in the SIB can indicate one configuration. The field inthe SIB can be the same as the one that indicates a combination offields in the DCI format. Then, the field in the SIB jointly indicates acombination of fields in the DCI format and their respective sizes.

When different types/categories of UEs are indicated different resourcesfor PRACH transmission, it is also possible for the configuration forthe fields of the first DCI format to be provided in a random accessresponse (RAR) because a serving gNB can determine a UE type andaccordingly adjust the contents of the RAR. Scheduling of a SIBreception or of a RAR reception can be by a DCI format with fields andrespective field sizes that are predetermined in the system operation.

FIG. 21 illustrates an example determination by a UE 2100 of aconfiguration of fields for a first DCI format according to embodimentsof the present disclosure. An embodiment of the determination by a UE2100 shown in FIG. 21 is for illustration only. One or more of thecomponents illustrated in FIG. 21 can be implemented in specializedcircuitry configured to perform the noted functions or one or more ofthe components can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

A UE is provided with a predetermined set of fields for a first DCIformat by the specification of a system operation 2110. The UE receivesa SIB that includes a field indicating a configuration for a subset offields, from the predetermined set of fields, for the first DCI format2120. The UE performs decoding operations for the first DCI formataccording to the configuration for the subset of fields 2130.

The second DCI format can have a same size as the first DCI format. Thefirst and second DCI formats can be differentiated through a 1-bit flagfield in each of the two DCI formats.

In a second approach for enabling a UE to monitor DCI formats withreduced size, the UE monitors a first subset of DCI formats, from a setof DCI formats defined in the specification of the system operation, forscheduling PDSCH receptions or PUSCH transmissions prior to establishingRRC connection with a serving gNB. For example, the first subset of DCIformats can be as described in NR specification and are monitored in acommon search space (CSS) that does not depend on a RNTI that isprovided to the UE after establishing RRC connection. Each DCI formatfrom the first subset of DCI formats has predetermined size and fieldsthat are independent of the UE type.

Upon establishing UE-dedicated RRC configuration, a UE can signal to aserving gNB a second subset of DCI formats, from the set of DCI formatsdefined in the specification of the system operation, for schedulingPDSCH receptions or PUSCH transmissions. The determination by the UE canbe based, for example, on a service type or a maximum data rate that theUE supports. The indication can be explicit or implicit.

Explicit indication is by the UE indicating to the serving gNB thesecond subset of DCI formats. Implicit indication can be by the UEindicating a service type or, equivalently, UE type or category and,based on the indication, a serving gNB can configure the second subsetof DCI formats, or configure fields and respective sizes (including asize of zero bits) for at least one DCI format from the second subset ofDCI formats.

The UE monitors PDCCH in a UE-specific search space only for the secondsubset of DCI formats for scheduling UE-specific PDSCH receptions orPUSCH transmissions and monitors PDCCH in a common search space only forthe first subset of DCI formats for scheduling PDSCH receptionsassociated with a SIB, a RAR, a paging message, or for schedulingUE-specific PDSCH receptions or PUSCH transmissions. The first subsetand the second subset of DCI formats may not have any common DCIformats.

DCI formats with RNTI that is configured to a UE by UE-dedicated higherlayer signaling, such as DCI formats with a TPC-PUSCH-RNTI,TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-SRS-RNTI, SFI-RNTI, INT-RNTI, are in the firstsubset of DCI formats. All DCI formats in the first subset of DCIformats may have a same size.

FIG. 22 illustrates example determination by a UE 2200 of DCI formatsfor scheduling PDSCH receptions or PUSCH transmissions according toembodiments of the present disclosure. An embodiment of thedetermination by a UE 2200 shown in FIG. 22 is for illustration only.One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 22 can be implementedin specialized circuitry configured to perform the noted functions orone or more of the components can be implemented by one or moreprocessors executing instructions to perform the noted functions. Otherembodiments are used without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure.

A UE establishes RRC connection setup with a serving gNB by monitoringPDCCH for DCI formats from a first subset of DCI formats in a CSS 2210.The UE, explicitly or implicitly, signals to the serving gNB anindication to monitor DCI formats from a second subset of DCI formats2220. The UE performs decoding operations for DCI formats from thesecond subset of DCI formats by monitoring PDCCH in a USS 2230. Thefirst and second subsets of DCI formats do not have common DCI formats.Any DCI format in the first subset of DCI formats can have a differentsize than any DCI format in the second subset of DCI formats. All DCIformats in the second subset of DCI formats can have a same size.

UE Capability to Monitor a Number of DCI Formats.

For a UE supporting multiple service types, it is beneficial for the UEto monitor PDCCH for DCI formats with sizes that are appropriate foreach service type. For example, for a UE supporting MBB service and ARNRservice, it is beneficial that DCI formats used for schedulingtransmissions/receptions of MBB transport blocks have larger sizes thatDCI formats used for scheduling transmissions/receptions of AVNRtransport blocks as the two service types have different requirementsfor maximum transport block sizes, reliability, and latency.

A UE does not expect to be configured to monitor DCI formats that havemore than 4 different sizes per cell or DCI formats with CRC scrambledby a C-RNTI that have more than 3 different sizes per cells. Although aDCI format for scheduling UE-specific PDSCH receptions or PUSCHtransmissions can have an RNTI different than a C-RNTI, as described inNR specification, the disclosure considers that RNTI to be same as theC-RNTI for the purpose of determining a total number of respective DCIformat sizes. Therefore, if a UE supports both MBB and ARNR services andif DCI formats used to schedule ARNR traffic have different size(s),such as smaller size, than DCI formats used to schedule MBB traffic, atotal number of sizes for UE-specific DCI formats that the UE isconfigured to monitor in a cell can be larger than 3.

A first approach to enable a UE to support multiple service types with asize of DCI formats providing scheduling for at least one of the servicetypes being different (smaller) than a size of any DCI format providingscheduling for the other service types, is to introduce a new UEcapability. For example, a UE with the new UE capability can decode upto 4, instead of 3, sizes of DCI formats with CRC scrambled by a C-RNTIper cell.

If a UE indicates to a serving gNB a capability to monitor up to 4 sizesof DCI formats with CRC scrambled by a C-RNTI per cell, the serving gNBcan configure the UE to monitor DCI formats with a same size that isdifferent (for example, smaller) than a size of DCI format 0_0 and DCIformat 1_0. The size is also different than a size of DCI format 0_1 andDCI format 1_1. If the UE does not indicate to the serving gNB acapability to monitor up to 4 sizes of DCI formats with CRC scrambled bya C-RNTI per cell, the serving gNB can configure the UE to monitor onlyDCI format 0_0 and DCI format 1_0 for at least one service type. Insteadof a C-RNTI, the UE can be configured a different RNTI, such as anMCS-C-RNTI, to monitor DCI format 0_0 and DCI format 1_0 for at theleast one service type. The serving gNB can configure the UE to alsomonitor DCI format 0_1 or DCI format 1_1 for another service type.

FIG. 23 illustrates an example process 2300 for supporting scheduling toa UE for at least one service type with a size of DCI formats that isdifferent than a size of any DCI format supporting scheduling to the UEfor another service type according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. An embodiment of the process 2300 shown in FIG. 23 is forillustration only. One or more of the components illustrated in FIG. 23can be implemented in specialized circuitry configured to perform thenoted functions or one or more of the components can be implemented byone or more processors executing instructions to perform the notedfunctions. Other embodiments are used without departing from the scopeof the present disclosure.

A UE indicates a capability for a number of sizes of DCI formats thatthe UE can monitor per cell where the DCI formats schedule UE-specificPDSCH receptions or PUSCH transmissions 2310. For example, a RNTI of theDCI formats can be a C-RNTI, a CS-RNTI, an MCS-C-RNTI, and so on. Whenthe UE indicates a capability for monitoring 4 sizes of DCI formats 2320then, for scheduling associated with at least one service type, the UEmonitors DCI formats with a same size that is different (smaller) than asize of DCI format 0_0, DCI format 1_0, DCI format 0_1, and DCI format1_1 2330. When the UE does not indicate a capability for monitoring 4sizes of DCI formats 820 then, for scheduling associated with at leastone service type, the UE monitors only DCI formats with a same size as asize of DCI format 0_0 and DCI format 1_0 2340 (or as a size of DCIformat 0_1 or as a size of DCI format 1_1).

A second approach to enable a UE to support multiple service types witha size of DCI formats for scheduling of at least one of the servicetypes being different (smaller) than a size of any DCI format forscheduling of other service types is to condition a UE capability tomonitor up to 3 sizes of DCI formats with CRC scrambled by a C-RNTI percell to be per PDCCH monitoring occasion and not across all PDCCHmonitoring occasions.

When, due to a monitoring periodicity of DCI formats, the UE has tomonitor more than 3 sizes of DCI formats with CRC scrambled by a C-RNTIat a same PDCCH monitoring occasion, the serving gNB can configure theUE the sizes of DCI formats that the UE is not required to monitor. Itis also possible that the sizes can be predetermined in thespecification of the system operation such as for example the sizes canbe the ones for DCI format 0_1 or DCI format 1_1.

A third approach to enable a UE to support multiple service types with asize of DCI formats for scheduling of at least one of the service typesbeing different (smaller) than a size of any DCI format for schedulingof other service types is to maintain a maximum of 4 different sizes ofDCI formats to monitor per cell but also allow all sizes to be for DCIformats with CRC scrambled by a C-RNTI. If at a PDCCH monitoringoccasion the UE has to monitor more than 4 sizes of DCI formats then,similar to the second approach, a serving gNB can configure the UE thesizes of DCI formats with CRC scrambled by a C-RNTI that the UE is notrequired to monitor.

Determination for Number of Coded Modulation Symbols for a UCI Type in aPUSCH.

In a first approach, to avoid over-dimensioning a number of codedmodulation symbols for UCI in a PUSCH with UL-SCH as it was previouslydescribed with reference to Equation 1, the determination for the numberof UCI coded modulation symbols can be based on the spectral efficiencySE=Q_(m)·R of the UL-SCH in the PUSCH instead of the ratio

$\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}/{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}} - 1}{K_{r}.}}}$

R is a code rate of a transport block transmission in the PUSCH, andQ_(m) is the modulation order of data symbols in the PUSCH. Then, anumber of coded modulation symbol for UCI, such as HARQ-ACK informationQ_(ACK)′, multiplexing in the PUSCH can be determined using Q_(m)·Rinstead of

${\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}/{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL} - {SCH}} - 1}K_{r}}}},$

for example as in Equation 6:

$\begin{matrix}{Q_{ACK}^{\prime} = {\min\left\{ {\left\lceil \frac{\left( {O_{ACK} + L_{ACK}} \right) \cdot \beta_{offset}^{PUSCH}}{Q_{m} \cdot R} \right\rceil,\left\lceil {\alpha \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = l_{0}}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}} \right\rceil} \right\}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 6}\end{matrix}$

In a second approach, in addition to the number of data information bitsas captured by

${\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL}\text{-}{SCH}} - 1}K_{r}},$

the number of UCI bits scaled by a corresponding β_(offset) ^(PUSCH) toaccount for a difference relative to data information in a target BLERand coding gain is added to

$\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL}\text{-}{SCH}} - 1}{K_{r}.}$

Then, the ratio

$\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}/\left( {{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL}\text{-}{SCH}} - 1}K_{r}} + {\left( {O_{ACK} + L_{ACK}} \right) \cdot \beta_{offset}^{PUSCH}}} \right)}$

is representative of a reference spectral efficiency for the combineddata information and UCI multiplexing in the PUSCH and a number of codedmodulation symbol for UCI, such as HARQ-ACK information Q_(ACK)′,multiplexing in the PUSCH can be determined, for example, as in Equation7:

$\begin{matrix}{Q_{ACK}^{\prime} = {\min\begin{Bmatrix}{\left\lceil \frac{\left( {O_{ACK} + L_{ACK}} \right) \cdot \beta_{offset}^{PUSCH} \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}}{{\sum\limits_{r = 0}^{C_{{UL}\text{-}{SCH}} - 1}K_{r}} + {\left( {O_{ACK} + L_{ACK}} \right) \cdot \beta_{offset}^{PUSCH}}} \right\rceil,} \\\left\lceil {\alpha \cdot {\sum\limits_{l = l_{0}}^{N_{{symb},{all}}^{PUSCH} - 1}{M_{sc}^{UCI}(l)}}} \right\rceil\end{Bmatrix}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 7}\end{matrix}$

A PUSCH transmission from a UE can be with a number of N_(repeat)^(PUSCH) repetitions that is, for example, indicated by a DCI formatscheduling the PUSCH transmission. In such case, a spectral efficiencyfor data information in the PUSCH transmission depends on the number ofrepetitions. When the UE multiplexes UCI in one of the repetitions ofthe PUSCH transmission, a value of β_(offset) ^(PUSCH) used fordetermining a number of UCI coded modulation symbols may adjust to thespectral efficiency of the data information that is inversely scaled bythe number of N_(repeat) ^(PUSCH) repetitions.

When a value of β_(offset) ^(PUSCH) is provided by higher layers, thevalue is a reference one, β_(offset_ref) ^(PUSCH), that corresponds to apredetermined or configured number of repetitions for a PUSCHtransmission such as a single transmission (N_(repeat) ^(PUSCH)=1).Then, to compensate for a lower spectral efficiency of data informationin a PUSCH transmission with N_(repeat) ^(PUSCH) repetitions, the UE canapply a value of β_(offset) ^(PUSCH)=N_(repeat) ^(PUSCH)·_(offset_ref)^(PUSCH) for determining a number of UCI coded modulation symbols.

Transmission Power Adjustment for UCI-Only PUSCH.

A UCI-only PUSCH (without UL-SCH) may include different UCI types andtheir combinations. For example, a UCI-only only aperiodic CSI, onlyHARQ-ACK information, or both aperiodic CSI and HARQ-ACK information.

When a UCI-only PUSCH transmission includes aperiodic CSI information,regardless of whether or not the UCI-only PUSCH transmission alsoincludes HARQ-ACK information, the aperiodic CSI information includesCSI part 1 and CSI past 2. Due to a restriction of a maximum code ratethat the UE is provided by higher layers for multiplexing aperiodic CSIin available PUSCH, a UE may drop, at least partly, CSI part 2multiplexing when there are no sufficient resources to achieve a coderate smaller than the maximum code rate. Therefore, it is preferablethat a PUSCH transmission power is determined only based on CSI part 1.

As previously described with reference to Equation 5, a value ofBPRE=O_(CSI)/N_(RE), where O_(CSI) is the CSI part 1 payload (includingCRC bits), provides an accurate BPRE value only when there is only CSIpart 1 and there is no CSI part 2 or HARQ-ACK information multiplexed ina UCI-only PUSCH. When there are additional UCI types, such as HARQ-ACKinformation or CSI part 2, BPRE=O_(CSI)/N_(RE) is not accurate fordetermining a power adjustment factor Δ_(TF,b,f,c)(i) on UL BWP b ofcarrier f of serving cell c using parameter set configuration with indexj in PUSCH transmission occasion i. This is because, when CSI part 1 isnot the only UCI type in a UCI-only PUSCH, the number of REs N_(R)available for UCI multiplexing is not used to multiplex only CSI part 1.For CSI multiplexing, available REs are the PUSCH REs excluding DM-RSREs and REs used for phase-tracking RS.

In a first approach, BPRE=O_(CSI)/N_(RE) is replaced by the spectralefficiency indicated by the DCI format scheduling the UCI-only PUSCHtransmission. Then, BPRE can be based on the spectral efficiencyQ_(m)·R, for example BPRE=Q_(m)·R, where Q_(m) is a modulation order forCSI part 1 coded information bits and R is a code rate for CSI part 1bits. A same determination, for example BPRE=Q_(m)·R, can apply alsowhen a PUSCH transmission includes UL-SCH and then Q_(m) is a modulationorder for coded information bits of data information and R is a coderate for data information bits.

In a second approach, when a UE also multiplexes HARQ-ACK information ina UCI-only PUSCH, since the multiplexing of HARQ-ACK information isprioritized relative to CSI multiplexing, it is possible thatmultiplexing of CSI part 1 is at least partly dropped. For example,dropping of some CSI part 1 reports can occur when, after multiplexingHARQ-ACK information, a number of available REs is not sufficient toachieve a code rate for the CSI part 1 reports that is smaller than orequal to a maximum code rate provided by higher layer.

A UE can determine existence of HARQ-ACK information in a UCI-only PUSCHfrom the fields of DCI formats scheduling a UCI-only PUSCH transmissionand from determination of a HARQ-ACK information codebook. Then, theBPRE can be based on the transmission of HARQ-ACK information bitsinstead of CSI part 1 report bits.

Simultaneous Transmissions of UCI and Data Information.

UCI multiplexing in a PUSCH can depend on several conditions in additionto conditions related to timing requirements.

A first condition is for the data information and for the UCImultiplexed in the PUSCH to be associated with a same service type asthis is identified by respective DCI formats or higher layerconfiguration. A PUSCH transmission can include a first category or asecond category of data information and correspond to a first DCI formator to a second DCI format. The DCI formats can be identified, forexample, based on corresponding RNTIs such as a C-RNTI and anMCS-C-RNTI.

Alternatively, when both DCI formats include a CRC scrambled by a sameRNTI, such as a C-RNTI, the DCI format can be identified based oncorresponding sizes, such as a DCI format 0_0 and a DCI format with sizesmaller than DCI format 0_0. Similar, when UCI is HARQ-ACK information,the HARQ-ACK information can be of a first category or a second categorywhere, similar to data information, the identification can be based onDCI formats scheduling respective PDSCH receptions (or SPS PDSCHrelease).

When a PUSCH transmission or a PUCCH transmission is configured byhigher layers, the higher layer configuration can identify, implicitlyor explicitly, the category of the data information or of the UCIinformation for a same UCI type, such as a first or a second categoryusing a 1-bit identification/tag.

When a UE would simultaneously transmit a first PUCCH that includes afirst UCI category, a second PUCCH that includes a second UCI category,and a PUSCH, the following apply. When the UE is configured forsimultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions, the UE multiplexes the UCIinformation that is of a same category as data information in the PUSCHtransmission and multiplexes the other UCI category, when any, in theassociated PUCCH transmission. When the UE is not configured forsimultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions, the UE determines thechannel to transmit based on prioritization rules.

When a second category of data information has higher priority than afirst category of data information and the PUSCH includes datainformation of the second category, the UE drops the transmission of thefirst PUCCH and multiplexes the second UCI category in the second PUSCHtransmission. When the PUSCH includes data information of the firstcategory, the UE can be configured by higher layers whether to transmitonly the second PUCCH (and not transmit the PUSCH with data informationof the first category), at least when the second UCI categorycorresponds to HARQ-ACK information, or whether to multiplex all UCI inthe PUSCH transmission.

A second condition for a UE to simultaneously transmit PUCCH and PUSCH,when the UE is configured for simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCHtransmissions, is for a corresponding PUCCH resource for the PUCCHtransmission to have a same first and last symbol as the PUSCHtransmission. When the PUCCH resource for the PUCCH transmission doesnot have a same first and last symbol as the PUSCH transmission, the UEbehavior is same as when the UE is not configured for simultaneous PUCCHand PUSCH transmissions.

A reason for not enabling simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissionsthat do not completely align in a time domain is to avoid variations inUE transmission power that can result to a phase discontinuity therebydegrading reception reliability for one or for both transmissionsdepending on the arrangement for the partial time overlapping.

FIG. 24 illustrates an example realization 2400 for configurations ofsimultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure. An embodiment of the realization 2400 shown inFIG. 24 is for illustration only. One or more of the componentsillustrated in FIG. 24 can be implemented in specialized circuitryconfigured to perform the noted functions or one or more of thecomponents can be implemented by one or more processors executinginstructions to perform the noted functions. Other embodiments are usedwithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

For the configuration of simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions in2410, corresponding first and last symbols are the same, and the UEtransmits both the PUCCH and the PUSCH. For the configurations ofsimultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions in 2420, 2430, and 2440,corresponding first or last symbols are different, the UE multiplexesassociated UCI in the PUSCH, and transmits only the PUSCH.

A third condition for a UE to simultaneously transmit PUCCH and PUSCH,when the UE is configured for simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCHtransmissions, is for a difference in respective transmission powers orfor a difference in respective power spectral densities to be smallerthan a threshold. The threshold can be specified in the system operationor be provided to the UE by higher layers. When the difference issmaller than the threshold (or is not larger than the threshold), the UEtransmits both the PUCCH and the PUSCHs (this can also be subject toother aforementioned conditions being fulfilled); otherwise, the UEmultiplexes the UCI in the PUSCH and transmits only the PUSCH.

Although the present disclosure has been described with an exemplaryembodiment, various changes and modifications may be suggested to oneskilled in the art. It is intended that the present disclosure encompasssuch changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appendedclaims.

None of the description in this application should be read as implyingthat any particular element, step, or function is an essential elementthat must be included in the claims scope. The scope of patented subjectmatter is defined only by the claims. Moreover, none of the claims areintended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless the exact words “means for”are followed by a participle.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for receiving a transport block (TB),the method comprising: receiving: a first physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) that provides a first downlink control information (DCI)format, wherein the first DCI format schedules reception of a firstphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) that provides the TB, and thefirst PDSCH; transmitting a channel that provides negativeacknowledgment information for the TB; and receiving: a second PDCCHthat provides a second DCI format, wherein the second DCI formatschedules reception of a second PDSCH that provides the TB, and thesecond PDSCH, wherein: the first DCI format is a multicast DCI format,and the second DCI format is a unicast DCI format.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving: a third PDCCH that provides thefirst DCI format, wherein the first DCI format schedules reception of athird PDSCH, and the third PDSCH, wherein the third PDSCH provides theTB.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein: the first DCI format includescyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits scrambled by a first radio networktemporary identifier (RNTI), and the second DCI format includes CRC bitsscrambled by a second RNTI.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstDCI format has same size as the second DCI format.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving: first information that providesa first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource, and secondinformation that provides a set of PUCCH resources; and transmitting asecond PUCCH with acknowledgement information for the TB provided by thesecond PDSCH using a second PUCCH resource from the set of PUCCHresources, wherein transmitting the channel further comprisestransmitting a first PUCCH with the negative acknowledgement informationusing the first PUCCH resource, wherein the channel is the first PUCCH.6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving: firstinformation for first search space sets for receptions of first PDCCHs,wherein the first PDCCH is from the first PDCCHs, and second informationfor second search space sets for receptions of second PDCCH, wherein thesecond PDCCH is from the second PDCCHs.
 7. The method of claim 1,further comprising: decoding the TB provided by the first PDSCHaccording to a first redundancy version (RV), and decoding the TBprovided by the second PDSCH according to a second RV, wherein thesecond RV is different than the first RV.
 8. A user equipment (UE)comprising a transceiver configured to: receive: a first physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) that provides a first downlink controlinformation (DCI) format, wherein the first DCI format schedulesreception of a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) thatprovides a transport block (TB), and the first PDSCH; transmit a channelthat provides negative acknowledgment information for the TB; andreceive: a second PDCCH that provides a second DCI format, wherein thesecond DCI format schedules reception of a second PDSCH that providesthe TB, and the second PDSCH, wherein: the first DCI format is amulticast DCI format, the second DCI format is a unicast DCI format. 9.The UE of claim 8, wherein the transceiver is further configured toreceive: a third PDCCH that provides the first DCI format, wherein thefirst DCI format schedules reception of a third PDSCH, and the thirdPDSCH, wherein the third PDSCH provides the TB.
 10. The UE of claim 8,wherein: the first DCI format includes cyclic redundancy check (CRC)bits scrambled by a first radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), andthe second DCI format includes CRC bits scrambled by a second RNTI. 11.The UE of claim 8, wherein the first DCI format has same size as thesecond DCI format.
 12. The UE of claim 8, wherein the transceiver isfurther configured to: receive: first information that provides a firstphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource, and second informationthat provides a set of PUCCH resources; and transmit: a first PUCCH withthe negative acknowledgement information using the first PUCCH resource,wherein the channel is the first PUCCH, and a second PUCCH withacknowledgement information for the TB provided by the second PDSCHusing a second PUCCH resource from the set of PUCCH resources.
 13. TheUE of claim 8, wherein the transceiver is further configured to receive:first information for first search space sets for receptions of firstPDCCHs, wherein the first PDCCH is from the first PDCCHs, and secondinformation for second search space sets for receptions of secondPDCCHs, wherein the second PDCCH is from the second PDCCHs.
 14. The UEof claim 8, wherein the transceiver is further configured to decode: theTB provided by the first PDSCH according to a first redundancy version(RV), and the TB provided by the second PDSCH according to a second RV,wherein the second RV is different than the first RV.
 15. A base stationcomprising a transceiver configured to: transmit: a first physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) that provides a first downlink controlinformation (DCI) format, wherein the first DCI format schedulestransmission of a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) thatprovides a transport block (TB), and the first PDSCH; receive a channelthat provides negative acknowledgment information for the TB; andtransmit: a second PDCCH that provides a second DCI format, wherein thesecond DCI format schedules transmission of a second PDSCH that providesthe TB, and the second PDSCH, wherein: the first DCI format is amulticast DCI format, the second DCI format is a unicast DCI format. 16.The base station of claim 15, wherein: the first DCI format includescyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits scrambled by a first radio networktemporary identifier (RNTI), and the second DCI format includes CRC bitsscrambled by a second RNTI.
 17. The base station of claim 15, whereinthe first DCI format has same size as the second DCI format.
 18. Thebase station of claim 15, wherein the transceiver is further configuredto: transmit: first information that provides a first physical uplinkcontrol channel (PUCCH) resource, and second information that provides aset of PUCCH resources; and receive: a first PUCCH with the negativeacknowledgement information using the first PUCCH resource, wherein thechannel is the first PUCCH, and a second PUCCH with acknowledgementinformation for the TB provided by the second PDSCH using a second PUCCHresource from the set of PUCCH resources.
 19. The base station of claim15, wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit: firstinformation for first search space sets for transmissions of firstPDCCHs, wherein the first PDCCH is from the first PDCCHs, and secondinformation for second search space sets for transmissions of secondPDCCHs, wherein the second PDCCH is from the second PDCCHs.
 20. The basestation of claim 15, wherein the transceiver is further configured toencode: the TB provided by the first PDSCH according to a firstredundancy version (RV), and the TB provided by the second PDSCHaccording to a second RV, wherein the second RV is different than thefirst RV.